More than 1,000 people attended a vigil in west Belfast yesterday to protest at recent killings of Catholics by loyalists, which the organisers described as a sectarian assassination campaign.
The vigil in Dunville Park, on the Falls Road, was organised by a range of local community groups. A spokeswoman, Ms Liz Groves, called on the government "to safeguard our right to life as Irish people living in the north of Ireland".
She said many in the community were alarmed at the voracity, timing and reporting of recent attacks. "This sectarian murder campaign is not about `retaliation' or `tit-for-tat' but is designed to terrorise our community into accepting a return to Stormont. We believe the sectarian nature of these attacks and hatred of Catholics should not determine our political future."
Ms Groves said the only way to stop the attacks was "to challenge the implicit sectarianism within Northern Ireland society". She called on "the British government and the unionist and loyalist people" to stop the attacks.