Republican News · Thursday 6 February 1997

Kelly calls for vigilance

By Mick Naughton.

Sinn Fein's Gerry Kelly has warned nationalists across the Six Counties to be more vigilant following a number of incidents involving loyalists in Belfast, Down and Armagh.

Kelly's warning came after the death of 79 year old Independent Banbridge councillor Larry McCartan near his Laurencetown home last Monday morning 3 February as he drove his wife clear of a loyalist bomb alert. McCartan suffered a heart attack. The device was discovered to be a hoax.

Residents of Laurencetown and Hilltown as well as the nationalist Obins Street in Portadown were evacuated from their homes after the previously unknown loyalist group the''Mid-Ulster loyalists'' left elaborate hoax bombs under cars.

In his warning Kelly said, ``Sinn Fein has received information from several people in these areas that they have been targeted by known loyalists in recent days.In an incident in Armagh city a balaclava and a pair of gloves were found close to the scene where the incident occured. This is further proof that the loyalist ceasfire is over and republicans and nationalists need to be more vigilant.''

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