No one has yet been charged in connection with the attack on the City Church in the Holylands area which sheltered Roma families after they left their homes. But, following the arrest of three men, including the law student son of a leading QC who appears to sit on the GAAs Anti- Doping Hearings Committee, and despite the police reportedly saying at the time that there was “no indication of a racial motive to the vandalism”, Policing Board members are now apparently concerned about the accuracy of the initial reporting. From the Irish Times report.
Sinn Féin board member and MLA Alex Maskey said he was in the City Church the morning after the breaking of the windows and watched CCTV footage showing the attack and the attackers. He believed the incident was allowed to get out of hand, partly driven by media assumption that this was part of concerted, sinister racist intimidation.
Of course, that assumption was also evident in statements by the SDLP, the UUP and the DUP. But, although the Alliance Party came close, none were as definitive in their identification of those responsible as Sinn Féin’s Alex Maskey.
“This attack is a new low for those racist criminals engaged in a campaign of intimidation against ethnic communities here in the south of the city.”