AN ELDERLY Catholic priest who was trapped in his house on Monday night when it was attacked by a loyalist mob has been forced to leave the house in Harryville, Ballymena, Co Antrim. Father Frank Mullen said yesterday that the attack was vicious, sectarian, and frightening.
A local Ulster Unionist Party councillor and Orange Order member, Mr William Wright, said that the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, was "totally responsible" for the attack on the Catholic parochial house, beside the Church of Our Lady, Mother of the Church.
Father Mullen, who looked shaken, said he felt very vulnerable. His car was destroyed by a petrol bomb and heavy concrete blocks were hurled through his living room window. Stones and bottles were also thrown at the house, which is beside a predominantly loyalist area.
"It doesn't seem to be a good idea to show yourself. It's not as if you are going to chase away bad boys, maybe who would kill you, or stone if you go out. I mean, what can I do?" he said in a UTV interview. To the loyalists who staged the attack, he said: "Why? Have we done anything to deserve this?"
His parish priest, Father Sean Connolly, said people just wanted to live in peace in the area. "We would like to think that the rest of the people here would treat us exactly the same way as we want to treat them," he added.
One local woman who was interviewed condemned the attack, but an unidentified man said he agreed 100 per cent" with it. "It's his problem, not mine," he said. "We have got to take a stand somewhere, we are fed up with this," he said.
Mr Wright said nothing could justify the attack but Sir Hugh Annesley, who blocked the Orange Order from parading down the Garvaghy Road, was "totally" to blame.
"The chief constable must have thought very carefully before he took his decision. If he didn't think carefully then in my estimation he should not be in his post. And he must have known that there is a build-up of frustration in the Protestant community which has been boiling for some time." Mr Wright said.
