Garvaghy spokesman is warned

The RUC has warned the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition spokesman, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, that loyalists have targeted …

The RUC has warned the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition spokesman, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, that loyalists have targeted him and that his life is in immediate danger.

Yesterday, Mr Mac Cionnaith said two RUC officers had visited his home on Friday evening to warn him of the threat but did not specify which loyalist group was involved.

"All the RUC said was that security and intelligence sources confirmed there was a threat against me," he said. "I was told that the RUC believed I would be at very serious risk for the next number of weeks."

It would not deter him from his work with the residents' coalition but he would be "extremely careful about my movements and also my personal security".

READ MORE

This is not the first time threats have been made against Mr Mac Cionnaith. Some 10 years ago loyalists managed to obtain his security file and in 1997 his name was believed to be at the top of a death list compiled by the Loyalist Volunteer Force. More recently he has become a target of general loyalist hate because of his involvement with the Drumcree parade dispute.

Mr MacCionnaith was a lifelong friend of the murdered Lurgan solicitor, Mrs Rosemary Nelson. He lives close to Portadown's Garvaghy Road and has already been put on the Northern Ireland Office's "Key Persons' Protection Scheme".

Loyalist sources close to the LVF yesterday denied that they were involved in "targeting" Mr MacCionnaith.