Increasing threats to public service workers in Northern Ireland from paramilitary factions are being countered by "people-power", writes Northern News Editor Dan Keenan
Belfast's Lord Mayor says he will continue working as normal, despite receiving a round of 9mm ammunition in the post, courtesy of the "Orange Volunteers" last week.
Mr Alex Maskey has been threatened before, and attacked many times. He had a pipe-bomb device thrown at his west Belfast home this year.
While living with the possibility of violence is normal for many prominent Sinn Féiners, it's less common for postal workers, teachers and health workers. But that has become the staple for many in both Belfast and Derry this year.
What is making so many ordinary workers more fearful are the deaths of postal worker Danny McColgan and of construction worker David Caldwell, the former by the UDA and the latter probably by the "Real IRA".
The threat seems omnipresent: all workers are "legitimate" targets and the randomness of the two murders confirms the deepest fears of employers and employees.
The trade unions have come to the fore, but despite initiatives aimed at stemming the sectarianism that fuels such threats, pessimism about the effectiveness of City Hall demonstrations seems to be deepening.
Last Friday's rally prompted a disappointing crowd to take a stand against random paramilitary killings of ordinary workers.
A small protest march in Derry yesterday seemed to confirm the scepticism that much can be done to stop those who threaten workers, put bullets in the post or plot against soft targets.
Linda Caldwell, daughter of the murdered construction worker at the Territorial Army base last week, joined the march from the Caw Camp, where her father picked up the booby-trapped device, to the city centre.
Yet amid growing despondency about the power of paramilitaries to set the agenda, she spoke positively of "people-power". She said: "I'm really touched by the community, especially here in Derry where you see so much sectarianism.
"To have people come across the divide and speak to you and show their support If people want to retaliate they're not going to do it in our daddy's name. They're doing it to score points in the political arena."
Postal workers in the city decided yesterday to resume normal working following assurances from a loyalist organisation that Catholics were safe to work in the largely Protestant Waterside area of Derry. The so-called North Antrim and Londonderry Independent Ulster Loyalists rejected the validity of alleged threats made against Catholic workers and denied that the Red Hand Defenders - said to have issued threats - even existed.
But the situation deteriorated further yesterday when another shadowy fringe organisation telephoned warnings to a Belfast newsroom that it would shoot health workers at the Royal Victoria Hospital on the Falls Road and the Mater Hospital in north Belfast if they turned up for work.
The Catholic Reaction Force claimed that the names were linked to the security forces.
This threat came in tandem with warnings issued by the Ulster Freedom Fighters against Catholic employees at the two hospitals. Police officers accordingly took up high visibility positions at the hospitals yesterday.
Management and unions have been quick to condemn the emerging spiral of threat and counter-threat. Unison, the large health sector union, said it was time the paramilitaries got the message to stop.
"The message is 'back off' once and for all," said its spokeswoman Patricia McKeown. "You are clearly trying to destabilise this society in total. In the worst of wars medical staff are out of bounds and to pick on such a soft target can only hurt people and damage (health) services."
Despite the growing incidence of paramilitary threats and the willingness of some to go through with them, trade unionists and others remain defiant.
Hospital workers are planning their own demonstration in Belfast today. Their spirit, amid such a strong climate of pointlessness, is summed up by Denis Bradley, deputy chairman of the North's Policing Board.
"If people are allowed to go out and kill a Catholic or kill a Protestant and nobody says anything, then that appears to be an imprimatur that it's okay. At least this says 'it's not okay'.
"There are thousands of people in this community who say No and at least that's something. It may not be enough, it may not stop it it may not be heard by the people you want to hear it, but at least it's saying it."