Rights group says 250,000 Protestants had to move homes

An estimated 250,000 Protestants in the North have been forced out of various areas since 1970, according to a report submitted…

An estimated 250,000 Protestants in the North have been forced out of various areas since 1970, according to a report submitted to the British government and Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission.

The report, produced by Fowlk Richts, an Ulster Scots human rights group, said that one in four of the Protestant population in the North had moved under direct or indirect threat or intimidation.

In Derry city, the report said 13,000 Protestants had lived on the west bank of the city but this number had now dwindled to fewer than a thousand following years of sectarian attacks and killings, as well as an IRA bombing campaign against Protestant businesses.

The residual Protestant population left on the west bank of the river Foyle was crammed into the Fountain Street Estate, where people were subject to ongoing sectarian attacks.

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The report claimed British government policies had worsened, or at least failed to address, the need of the dislocated population.

In Fermanagh, it said, the inability of the authorities to deal with violence led to a dramatic movement of population from Border areas.

Due to the sustained IRA campaign in rural areas, many farms in Protestant areas along the Border, particularly in Fermanagh and Tyrone, had not been worked and not improved for over 25 years. Schemes which were available for improving farms which Catholic farmers were able to take advantage of had now been withdrawn.

The new equality legislation would further damage the sustainability of Protestant communities in rural areas, the report said. Under this legislation it was illegal to attempt to sell land or property within one religious community.

One of the ways in which threatened Protestant communities could survive and remain viable was by selling and keeping land and property within the local community.

In Co Tyrone, the report cites the case of Coalisland. It says 870 Protestants lived in the town in 1970 but there were now only 20 families there.

The Garvaghy Road area of Portadown was another area which had seen an exodus. More than 1,600 Protestants had left over the last 30 years.

The road is at the centre of the annual Drumcree dispute. The report accuses elements within the nationalist population of attempting to threaten Protestants in the nearby Corcrain area out of their homes.

In another example, Moy, Co Tyrone, was said to be split 5050 in 1970. According to the report there is only a very small population of Protestant pensioners there now. They are living in public housing, and are still subjected to regular lowlevel attacks such as window smashing.

Drawing information from a number of sources, the report recommended that the government study population movement more comprehensively

The Ulster Unionist peer Lord Laird of Artigarvan said he understood the report had been passed to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission in May. There had been no response from the commission, which he accused of caring only about republicans' human rights.

"They have been given a monumental opportunity to show even-handedness, yet here we are in August," he said.

A spokeswoman for the commission said it was considering the report.