Protestant family 'forced to leave' home

Published Tuesday, 24 July 2012
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A Protestant couple and their five-month-old baby girl say they are being forced to leave their home at a north Belfast interface after a series of sectarian attacks.

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On Monday night, Marcus Walker and his partner Nicola Gillespie had to call the police out to their Westland Drive home after the front door was smashed in and graffitti sprayed onto it.

The couple only moved to the area four months ago, believing it to be a suitable place to bring up their baby daughter Darcy.

Their Housing Executive home overlooks a play park and the picturesque waterworks, but it is on the edge of an interface with the Cliftonville Road and lower Antrim Road.

Marcus says their house was targeted two weeks after they arrived and the attacks have continued ever since.

"The police have been here 20 times in the space of four months," he said, before adding that he was "beyond concerned" about his family's safety.

I'm at the end of my tether ... it's soul-destroying.

Marcus Walker

Marcus said the only reason they were being targeted was because of their religion, adding: "I feel very lucky that we haven't been killed."

Last Friday night, Nicola was alone in the house with their baby girl when petrol was poured through the letterbox.

"I looked out the bedroom window and saw four men outside in a nearby field," she said, explaining that she triggered a panic alarm when she realised they were being attacked yet again.

Fearing for the safety of their daughter, the worried parents have asked to be moved to another house.

"I just don't want to be here anymore," she said, adding that there was no price for her child's life and that they could no longer live in terror.

"I just need another home somewhere else."

The police say they are working with Belfast City Council and community representatives to try to resolve the situation.

In a statement, the Housing Executive says it has the family offered them temporary accommodation but to date this has been refused.

It is now awaiting a report from the PSNI before taking any further action.

Pat Convery, an SDLP councillor in north Belfast, condemned the attacks saying they "served no purpose."

The former mayor said: "We can't have a city trying to work towards peace with people roaming around damaging property, wrecking homes and destroying family life."

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50 Comments
jackie in belfast wrote (300 days ago):
Agree with your comment Michael H, that is exactly what is happening,it has happened in so many areas in North Belfast,we know the build up and we know the outcome,as it has always been.Catholics don,t like whats happening but it doesn,t stop them moving into the homes when the Protestant families have forced out.Yeah i mentioned genocide in my last post,as far as i,m aware it means to kill or attempt to kill someone for there religoeus or political beliefs,maybe i,m wrong about that,but anyway this family have been targeted for murder because of no other reason other than they are protestant
Michael H in Belfast wrote (301 days ago):
Seems to me that these 'young thugs' are trying to turn the Westland Estate into another Torrens. Etchnically Cleanse the area of Protestants until they are all gone then they can move in and build nice new homes for the poor downtrodden Catholics in the area. This must be that shared future we hear so much about. Ulysses32 I noted the inclusion of your comment ragrding the UVF attacking Short Strand and I have to say that what happened there was as disgraceful as what is happening here. BUT why did you have to include this as it has come across as (in your own words) 'themuns started it'. In fact reading some of the comments here you would think it was this family's own fault for (God forbid) being Protestant and living in a Protestant area with flags.......
Victim of Sectarianism in Belfast wrote (301 days ago):
Speaking as a victim of loyalist sectarianism, having lost the home that I was born in at the age of 18 years in the White City, followed by survival of a loyalist murder attempt as I slept in my own bed, in my new home on the Whitewell Road, I roundly condemn this act of sectarianism. It is wrong. It is a disease that BOTH sides are infected with, and the rabid nonsense that is being spouted here about etnic cleansing is a blinkered view which is sectarian in itself. Both sides need to condemn and oppose ALL forms of bigotry & sectarianism if we are ever to move on.
Steve in Belfast wrote (301 days ago):
Ulysses 32: "how would you describe the UVF'S attack on the Short Strand last June?" I seem to remember Republicans called it a "siege" and shot a couple of journalists... what were you saying about hysterical??? It's true that some reaction here has been OTT (though the family in question might not think so), but it's interesting to compare the comments of SF politicians in cases like this and cases where Catholics have been attacked. When Protestants are attacked they go through the motions of weak condemnation: With Catholic attacks, well, hysteria doesn't even cover it.
GW in Whitehead wrote (301 days ago):
Why didn't they take the temporary accomodation?!!! It can't be that bad if they are going to sit around and wait for a house to become available. For the Housing Ex. to OFFER temp. acc. is a miracle. They should have taken it
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