Latest news with #CountyTyrone
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Yahoo
Nigerian woman buoyed by kindness of neighbours after racist attack
A Nigerian woman targeted in racist graffiti attack has decided not to leave her home after being "showered" in "love and care" by the local community. The words "immigrants out" were spray-painted on the gable wall of Uche Ukeje's home in Strabane, County Tyrone, last week. Ms Ukeje and her two daughters, aged 24 and 14, were left terrified by what police are describing as a racially-motivated hate crime. "The community have been wonderful," she told BBC News NI. Ms Ukeje said it was the first time she or her family had experienced any type of racism since they moved to Strabane two years ago. Security cameras have since been installed at the property. Ms Ukeje said her family remain "deeply unsettled" and had considered relocating away from Strabane but the overwhelming support from neighbours and wider community has persuaded her to change her mind. "A lot of people have been calling around, to see how I am feeling, and they care so much," she said, adding that Strabane is a "quiet, and peace-loving place". She told BBC News NI that the police have been doing extra patrols on her street to check on her. "The people of Strabane have showered me in love and care, it has been overwhelming," she added. Kamini Rao, from Strabane Ethnic Community Association, said people's shock turned to anger in the days following the incident. "The response from the community has been so overwhelming," she said. "Everybody has been 100% behind Uche and the girls, supporting them, because nobody wanted to see them leaving Strabane." She said she was glad that Ms Ukeje and her daughters have changed their minds and will remain in the place they now call home. Ms Rao said the outcome proved that whoever was behind the racist attack had not won. "We're going to be working on the ground to make sure nothing like this ever happens again in the community," she said. "She's loved round here and what happened to her was very intimidating, it was a disgrace what happened to her. "I'm glad her neighbours rallied round to show her that that's not the type of people here in Strabane." More on this story Mother terrified as home targeted in racist attack
BBC News
4 days ago
- BBC News
Strabane: Nigerian woman targeted in racist attack buoyed by kindness of neighbours
A Nigerian woman targeted in racist graffiti attack has decided not to leave her home after being "showered" in "love and care" by the local words "immigrants out" were spray-painted on the gable wall of Uche Ukeje's home in Strabane, County Tyrone, last week. Ms Ukeje and her two daughters, aged 24 and 14, were left terrified by what police are describing as a racially-motivated hate crime."The community have been wonderful," she told BBC News NI. Ms Ukeje said it was the first time she or her family had experienced any type of racism since they moved to Strabane two years ago. Security cameras have since been installed at the Ukeje said her family remain "deeply unsettled" and had considered relocating away from Strabane but the overwhelming support from neighbours and wider community has persuaded her to change her mind."A lot of people have been calling around, to see how I am feeling, and they care so much," she said, adding that Strabane is a "quiet, and peace-loving place". She told BBC News NI that the police have been doing extra patrols on her street to check on her. "The people of Strabane have showered me in love and care, it has been overwhelming," she added. Kamini Rao, from Strabane Ethnic Community Association, said people's shock turned to anger in the days following the incident. "The response from the community has been so overwhelming," she said."Everybody has been 100% behind Uche and the girls, supporting them, because nobody wanted to see them leaving Strabane."She said she was glad that Ms Ukeje and her daughters have changed their minds and will remain in the place they now call home. Ms Rao said the outcome proved that whoever was behind the racist attack had not won. "We're going to be working on the ground to make sure nothing like this ever happens again in the community," she said."She's loved round here and what happened to her was very intimidating, it was a disgrace what happened to her."I'm glad her neighbours rallied round to show her that that's not the type of people here in Strabane."
BBC News
5 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Dungannon Workhouse: Orphans sent to Australia remembered
On a quiet hill, overlooking the town of Dungannon, sits a memorial inscription reads: "To the memory of all those who sought shelter within these walls".Four pebbles were recently placed on top of it and the names of 21 young girls were read out was part of a remembrance service on the grounds of South Tyrone Hospital, the former site of Dungannon Workhouse. Each pebble represented 1,000 people who passed through its doors between 1842 and names belong to a group of young women from County Tyrone who were sent from the workhouse to Australia between 1848 and were part of a group that would become known as the Irish Famine Orphan Girls. A place of last resort In 1845, as poverty and starvation increased during the famine in Ireland, workhouses began to purpose was to offer succour and survival, but there was a saying that "the road to the workhouse was the road to death" - and for thousands it more than 100 years Dungannon workhouse was a place of last resort for thousands of men, women, and children who faced famine, poverty and who died in Dungannon workhouse are buried in a large-scale paupers' grave on the site close to what is now South Tyrone Hospital. On the hospital grounds there is a memorial garden in tribute to those who lived and died in the Southern Trust, which owns the land, recently refurbished the garden in preparation for a memorial event at the end of June to honour the history of the of Donaghmore Historical Society helped organise the MacGinty is chair of the said: "It is about honouring the lives of those who passed through the doors of Dungannon Workhouse and it's important to remember this is still very recent history, the workhouse only closed in 1948." 'I remember the workhouse children' Frank Shields is a member of the historical society who has memories of seeing children from Dungannon Workhouse at his in 1939 he said he remembers the young girls from the workhouse "vividly"."They wore these laced up black boots, like soldiers' boots, a grey skirts and dark coloured cardigans - they were dressed differently than everyone else."I also remember the young boys from the workhouse, they all wore these cut down grey trousers and often they had this brown paper bag with just a piece of bread in it, God help them." The Donaghmore Historical Society has also been working closely with another historical group in they have traced a number of girls who were sent from Dungannon Workhouse to were sent as part of the Earl Grey the scheme between 1848 and 1850, more than 4,000 young Irish female orphans left workhouses and were transported to Australia. The Earl Grey Scheme Earl Grey was secretary of state for the colonies and the aim of the scheme was to reduce overcrowding in workhouses and provide labour for Australia while reducing a big gender imbalance the 4,114 Irish Famine orphan girls sent to Australia, 94 were from County Tyrone and 21 of those girls came from Dungannon O'Neill lives in Melbourne and is part of the Famine Orphan Girls Commemoration Committee."The girls from Dungannon left in January during an Irish winter, spent three months on a boat and they would have arrived during an Australian summer, so it must have felt so alien to them," she said."It was a new colony so it would have been quite the frontier, many were treated with shame, but they were also very resilient and ended up raising large families and prospering."A tribute was paid to the girls during the recent memorial service on the site of the former Dungannon a traditional Irish ballad was played, the names of the young women were read out included the name of Eliza Addy. 'I'm humbly proud' Eliza Addy was born in 1834 in Dungannon and had worked as a domestic servant before entering the workhouse. When she was 16 years old she was chosen for the Earl Grey arrived in Melbourne on 10 January 1850 and would go onto work on a farm in 1854 she married and had nine children. She died in the western Victorian town of Stawell in of Eliza Addy regularly attend the annual Irish Famine Orphan Girls Commemoration in Australia. Her great, great, great granddaughter Leanne Seignior still lives in says her family have been very touched by Eliza's inclusion in the Dungannon workhouse added: "It blows my mind to think about how much she went through and survived, from the famine, to the trauma of the workhouse, then the boat trip and to arrive across the world at that age."To find the strength and resilience to keep goingm raise her family and now all these generations later to be remembered in her home country makes me incredibly humbly proud." There has also been ongoing work to uncover more information about other workhouses in mid old building of Magherafelt Workhouse still exists in the form of Mid Ulster O'Brien from the Loup Historical Society was at the memorial event for Dungannon Workhouse. Seamus is asking people to come forward with any information on the workhouse, including relics such as records books."We're particularly interested in trying to find the old bell - it's about documenting this for future generations."A new memorial stone and information board at the main entrance to the former site of Magherafelt Workhouse is due to be unveiled at a launch event on 31 July.
Daily Mail
14-07-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
SAS veteran disgusted at Labour's betrayal of his comrades breaks 44-year silence to reveal his regiment saved the life of Irish Republican Bernadette Devlin following a horrific murder attempt
He saw a lot of grim scenes in 20 years of active service all over the world, yet this one remains stuck in his mind more than 40 years later. 'It was a nightmare inside there,' recalls a soldier whom we will call Andrew. 'There was the husband on the kitchen floor with blood spurting out of an arterial wound. The children were screaming and their mother was in the bedroom with at least six bullets in her.' Fortunately, she was still alive – just. It was January 1981 on a snowy Northern Irish dawn at the bottom of a dead-end track in rural County Tyrone. Andrew was in charge of a three-man military observation team who had only just disarmed the gunmen responsible for this carnage. It was now very clearly a life-or-death situation. Andrew had to summon immediate medical aid, without which the parents of those screaming children would soon be dead. He also needed military back-up as soon as possible, in case the terrorists received reinforcements or twigged that they actually outnumbered their captors. The gunmen had severed the telephone line to this remote bungalow and the soldiers' radio wasn't working. Having despatched one of his men to run in search of the nearest house to ring for help, he was left with one other soldier to manage three angry terrorists, three hysterical children and two critically wounded civilians. Thanks to Andrew, however, those children would not become orphans that day. His swift actions also averted major civil unrest. For that young mother was Bernadette McAliskey, one of the most high-profile Republican sympathisers in Northern Ireland. Up until now, even she has not heard the full story – revealed today by the Mail. A few years earlier as Bernadette Devlin, she had been the youngest MP in the House of Commons. There, she went down in history for crossing the floor of the House to hit the Home Secretary in the face after stating that the Parachute Regiment had acted in self-defence when they killed 13 civilians on 'Bloody Sunday' in 1972. She had since married teacher Michael McAliskey and the couple had three children aged nine, five and two. Her would-be killers were a hit squad from the outlawed loyalist Protestant paramilitary, the Ulster Defence Association. As it was, the attack prompted vicious reprisals from the Catholic Irish Republican Army. Had she died, however, there would have been sectarian mayhem. This was the height of 'the Troubles' and inter-community tensions were already at boiling point. There have been numerous conspiracy theories ever since, including a popular nationalist narrative that Bernadette was under observation from a unit of the hated Parachute Regiment who made no effort to save her from a loyalist death squad. Years later, in a 2002 interview with the Mail's Geoffrey Levy, she attributed the couple's survival to a passing patrol of the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders. Today, however, the Mail can reveal what really happened that horrific morning. For the men who saved Bernadette and her husband that day were from the one Army unit which Irish republicans hated even more than the Paras. They were from the Special Air Service. And now the man in charge of that operation – 'Andrew' – has decided to speak out. He has done so with heavy heart as he has spent more than 40 years keeping his memories to himself, according to the regimental code of honour. But the current Left-wing rewriting of the history of the 'Troubles' in Northern Ireland, repainting the Special Forces as villains and besmirching the reputation of 'the Regiment', has goaded this taciturn 70-year-old soldier beyond endurance. He is appalled by the prospect of publicly funded human rights lawyers dragging Army veterans into the dock in pursuit of compensation for convicted terrorists and their families. He is furious that Sir Keir Starmer claims the current British law designed to protect veterans is 'unlawful' – as he did again last week – because it clashes with a European one. Emboldened by the Daily Mail's 'Stop The SAS Betrayal' campaign, he wants to show that, far from being some sort of rogue unit, the SAS were there to save lives – even those of the people who loathed them. Andrew was a 26-year-old corporal with six years in the SAS behind him when the call came through in January 1981 to mount an observation operation on the McAliskey home – overnight. 'We were very busy in those days. This was what we called a 'fast ball' operation,' he says. 'I had spent the day protecting a Belfast councillor during his constituency surgery. Then this job came in for that night. There was information of a threat to a celebrity politician. I learned afterwards that she knew she was on a hit list. 'There wasn't time to do a background study on the situation. We were just dropped off in the early hours of the morning and left to make an approach march to a grid reference where this bungalow was situated.' There was no question of walking up the lane. The three soldiers had to make their way in the dark for miles through driving snow around a peat bog. Their orders were to establish an observation position as close to the bungalow as possible, staying out in the open, regardless of the weather, for up to a week (a standard operational procedure known as 'hard routine'). Each man was armed with an Armalite M16 rifle and a Browning 9mm semi-automatic handgun. The plan was to keep watch round the clock, taking turns to sleep. They had only just arrived at first light and were still doing their initial circuit of the property, known as a '360'. This had just become more problematic following the discovery that the couple were breeding greyhounds in an outbuilding and the dogs had started barking, at which point the three soldiers could see a Hillman Avenger driving up the lane towards the house. The car was carrying three members of the UDA, Andrew Watson, Thomas Graham and Robert Smallwood, armed with a Smith & Wesson revolver and two 9mm Brownings. Leaving the engine running, they had jumped out. Two were smashing in the door to the bungalow with sledge hammers while a third set about tearing down the telephone line. Inside, Michael McAliskey had already seen a man in a balaclava through a window and yelled at his wife to hide under the bed. He rushed to the door and was trying to hold it back but the gunmen prised it open. A pistol was thrust through the gap and bullets started flying. He was hit in the arm and the gang pushed on into the house, one shooting at Michael – now on the floor bleeding and pretending to be dead. Another man went in search of Bernadette and found her in the bedroom. He fired at least six shots into her back, chest, legs and arms (some reports say as many as nine), leaving her for dead wedged in the gap between the bed and the wall where she had tried to hide. The children, unharmed, were in deep two gunmen ran for the car, just as the driver had managed to pull down the telephone cable with a rope. They were suddenly face to face with Andrew and his two colleagues, their M16s raised and ready to fire. 'We were seven or eight metres away and it was face on face like two charging bulls. We had every right to drop all three of them,' says Andrew. 'But we had shock on our side and we were more assertive. We were all in Army camouflage shouting, 'Security forces. Put down your weapons'. They could see it was a case of comply or die – so they complied.' Andrew ran inside, saw Michael on the floor and three children 'running around, hysterical' before finding Bernadette. Despite suffering multiple bullet wounds and now being confronted (while naked) by a second armed stranger in the space of a minute, the famously forthright political campaigner was still defiant. 'I suppose you bastards are coming in to finish me off,' she groaned. 'I didn't say who we were. I couldn't help her with this great hole in her chest. I just told her help was on its way,' Andrew recalls. Then he turned his attention back to Michael. 'We didn't have any drips or tourniquets. I just told him to keep the pressure on his arm to stem the bleeding.' The immediate problem was communications. As they were running towards the house, Andrew had issued the signal: 'Contact! Wait out!' This was the all-important alert telling HQ that his unit was going into action, to clear the airwaves, to await his next update and to have reinforcements despatched immediately. 'But communications just ended with my transmission. I never got the confirmation back that they had heard us.' Did anyone even know they were there? With no phone and no radio (standard-issue Army transmitters were notoriously unreliable in freezing weather), there had been no option but to send one of his two men to run off in search of a telephone. 'Luckily, as it turned out, the unit had heard my 'Contact! Wait out!' and had already deployed a quick-reaction force from the resident unit in Dungannon,' says Andrew. A company from the Argyll & Sutherland Highlanders were on the ground inside 15 minutes, followed swiftly by a helicopter to take the McAliskeys to hospital. 'Then we handed over the scene,' says Andrew, 'and extracted ourselves.' Having had no sleep for more than 24 hours, he returned to barracks for a shower and the mandatory debrief with the police and the military legal team. Then it was on to the next task. A year later, Andrew would be in the thick of the action in the Falklands War, shortly after the terrorists had received sentences (life for ringleader Watson, 20 years for Graham and 15 years for Smallwood, who was later murdered by the IRA). Andrew never heard from Bernadette, who would always maintain that he and his men were from the hated Paras, had no interest in saving her and had made no effort. 'Had it been left to the Paras, I would be dead,' she told the Mail in 2002, claiming that it was the Argylls who saved the day. 'Rob the medic saved our lives. He called a military helicopter and got the Paras to hand over their medical packs to stem our wounds. 'The Paras were confused and paralysed. It was the Argylls who took control and we did not die.' She also gave a crystal decanter to the military surgeon whose brilliant handiwork in hospital had saved both her and her husband (even though the doctor was a Para). One can but wonder what Bernadette would say if she knew what really happened that day. The Mail has approached her for comment. In such horrific circumstances, she can be forgiven for not knowing who was who. She showed commendable fortitude that day simply by keeping herself alive – and even cracking a joke. Having become disillusioned with politics and politicians, she would go on to devote her life to social projects in South Tyrone, as she still does. Despite her lifelong condemnation of the British state, this tenacious activist would never hesitate to attack Sinn Fein, the IRA and the Irish government, too, for letting down their own people. The horrors of that day left their mark on all the family, including Bernadette's daughter, Roisin, who later spent some time in jail, while pregnant, fighting extradition to Germany following a 1996 IRA mortar attack on a British Army base (repeated extradition attempts by the Germans were ultimately denied by a British judge). The attack on the McAliskeys also led to savage reprisals by the IRA. Days later, an eight-man unit murdered 86-year-old First World War hero and retired politician Sir Norman Stronge, 86, along with his only son, James, in the family home, Tynan Abbey. The murderers then torched the place to the ground. But the aftermath could have been far worse had Andrew and his team not done what they did that January day in County Tyrone. While he is fiercely proud of the SAS, he plays down his own role. 'We just did our best in the circumstances. And it didn't matter which side the attackers were on. They were just terrorists as far as I was concerned. 'We had every justification to shoot them but we showed restraint. If our actions had been different, then I might now find myself in the dock. But I've not said anything since.' So why talk now? 'Because now is the time to talk.'
New York Times
11-07-2025
- New York Times
Police Investigate Burning of Migrant-Boat Effigy in Northern Ireland as a Hate Crime
The police are investigating the burning of an effigy depicting Black migrants on a boat as a 'hate incident' after it was set alight as part of annual loyalist celebrations in Northern Ireland. A boat containing life-size mannequins wearing life jackets was set on top of a tower of wooden pallets in Moygashel, County Tyrone, above banners reading 'stop the boats' and 'veterans before refugees.' The bonfire was set alight in front of a large crowd on Thursday night as part of wider events marking the start of Twelfth of July, which commemorates the 1690 victory by a Protestant king, William III, over a Catholic king, James II. For more than a century, members of the Protestant community have taken part in annual marches and parades around July 12. During the Troubles, the sectarian conflict between Catholic and Protestant communities, 'marching season' was a source of tension and, at times, violence. While the marches have become less fraught in recent years, the bonfires remain a source of concern to police, some of whom fear they can stoke lawlessness. A statement from the Police Service of Northern Ireland said they had received several calls about the fire and the 'material that has been placed upon it,' which was being investigated as a 'hate incident.' The force said that officers were working to 'help those who are or who feel vulnerable, to keep people safe,' but cautioned that they can 'only do so within the legislative framework that exists.' Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
