A British army checkpoint yesterday on the road into Lurgan from the M1 motorway was an indication of the heightened tension in the town after a night of rioting there and in nearby Armagh city.
Up to 15 vehicles were hijacked and burnt out during the disturbances, which started at about 6 p.m. and continued until after midnight. Police said the youths carrying out the attacks were masked and armed, although no shots were fired. Some were wearing paramilitary-style clothing. Vehicles were stoned and burning vans and buses were placed across the Belfast-Dublin railway line and the M1 motorway. Both had to be closed for a time.
Republicans in the north Armagh area claimed the rioting was a spontaneous response to alleged harassment of youths by the security forces. The arrest of Lurgan republican, Mr Colin Duffy, after a weekend fracas with police was, they said, "the final straw". Security sources said such a level of rioting in two towns could not have occurred without some orchestration.
Yesterday, in the Kilwilkie estate in Lurgan, where some of the worst rioting occurred, Mr Duffy's wife, Susie, was waiting for her husband, who had been released on bail. He was charged on Tuesday with causing grievous bodily harm to a police officer in a disturbance in Lurgan early on Monday morning. Mr Duffy denied the charge, and his lawyer listed to the court a number of injuries he had suffered in the incident.
Mrs Duffy claims her husband is the victim of harassment by the RUC. The 29-year-old was cleared of murder by the Appeal Court in 1995 after spending three years in jail. In October this year, charges against him of murdering two policemen in Lurgan in June were dropped after he had spent almost four months on remand. He was re-arrested less than a week later, questioned and released the same day.
"He literally can't go out the door to the shop. From the time he got out, he can't go up the town, but he's stopped and held for an hour. They're being allowed to do it, no matter what publicity it gets," said Mrs Duffy.
She also asked why her husband wasn't arrested at the time of the incident but was taken from their home that afternoon. Kerbstones in Kilwilkie are painted green, white and orange.
Graffiti condemns RUC harassment and demands the release of Colin Duffy.
Workers were yesterday pushing burned-out buses and vans off Lake Street and the railway crossing. One young mother said she didn't agree with the rioting and that she couldn't let her children out on the street on Tuesday evening, but added: "But it's not right what they're doing to him either. He (Mr Duffy) can't go out the door at all."
Another woman asked, "why did they only arrest him when they said there were 30 people involved in the trouble on Sunday night?" A pensioner added: "There's no doubt they're harassing him."