BORDER FAMILIES WHO LIVE IN FEAR
Border families who live in fear
By IAN STARRET
Besieged Protestants living In Ulster's border "badlands" have welcomed the formation of a property company which hopes to to stem the loyalist exodus from such areas.
The Ulster Land and Property Co Ltd aims to offer financial support to help Protestant owners of land, dwellings and buildings adopt a "No Surrender" stance if they are put under republican pressure to vacate their homes and work bases.
They also plan to pump financial aid into backing businesses which have suffered from IRA-backed boycott campaigns, which have been continuing in some regions despite the peace efforts of recent years.
Since the Troubles began in October 1968 thousands of Protestants have claimed that they have been subjected to "ethnic cleansing" across the border areas, particularly along the western frontier.
Alan Field, former chairman of the Business and Professional People for the Union group, said:
"It has been an ongoing problem for the past 30 years and there has been no let up."
Mr Field said that according to his information, those behind the Ulster Land and Property Company all wished to keep their identity secret.
The company is attempting to keep private homes, unused Orange halls, farms and businesses from falling out of unionist hands.
To prevent this they are giving interest free loans to Protestants under threat in Tyrone, Fermanagh, South Down and South Armagh, where the "ethnic cleansing" has reportedly intensified, even since the Good Friday Agreement.
One source close to the Ulster Land and Property Co Ltd said yesterday that, as the News Letter had exclusively reported in a front page lead story on September 19, even after the Omagh bomb atrocity farmers living in isolated west Tyrone farmsteads were still suffering from intimidation from republicans.
"There was no let up in these tactics of fear - even after what happened in Omagh," said the source.
"People living in remote parts of west Tyrone are still being put under pressure to get out and leave the land that has been in their families for generations."
People living in those rural areas believe that renegade members of the infamous West Tyrone IRA Brigade, who carried out some of the worst incidents of "ethnic cleansing" in places like Castlederg over the last three decades, are behind the latest veiled threats.
The Ulster Land and Property Co Ltd is already understood to have over �1 million in the bank, mainly due to contributions ranging from �50 to �200 from well-wishers.
One of the main aims of the new organisation is to stop border farms and other rural property like garages and shops falling into nationalist hands.
In the border city of Londonderry, as well as a population drift away from the predominantly nationalist/republican west bank area over the last 30 years, there has even been recent evidence that Protestants have been vacating their homes and workplaces in the Waterside as well.
They are leaving the Maiden City, a symbolic stronghold for Protestants for over 300 years, to live in places like Limavady, Coleraine and Portrush.
Londonderry-based DUP politician Gregory Campbell, who has for years been highlighting the drift of Protestants and the dwindling of a Protestant way of life away from the Foyle's west bank, has described the new company's formation as a welcome development.
Republicans in the past have even hinted that the River Foyle should act as a political borderline and that the west bank, which contains the commercial heart of Ulster's second city, should become part of Eire.
Nationalists have also been gradually taking over Protestant property in County Donegal, particularly along the border with Londonderry and Tyrone.
In 1891 Protestants made up 21 per cent of the Donegal population and up until the years between the two world wars they still owned most the land as well as much of property in towns and villages.
Protestants were also well represented in civic and community life in County Donegal.
Protestant churches thrived but there has been a significant drift away into the Ulster heartland, and overseas by many of them over the past quarter century.
In the latest census it was revealed that only 10.19 per cent of Donegal's population are now Protestants.
By IAN STARRET
Besieged Protestants living In Ulster's border "badlands" have welcomed the formation of a property company which hopes to to stem the loyalist exodus from such areas.
The Ulster Land and Property Co Ltd aims to offer financial support to help Protestant owners of land, dwellings and buildings adopt a "No Surrender" stance if they are put under republican pressure to vacate their homes and work bases.
They also plan to pump financial aid into backing businesses which have suffered from IRA-backed boycott campaigns, which have been continuing in some regions despite the peace efforts of recent years.
Since the Troubles began in October 1968 thousands of Protestants have claimed that they have been subjected to "ethnic cleansing" across the border areas, particularly along the western frontier.
Alan Field, former chairman of the Business and Professional People for the Union group, said:
"It has been an ongoing problem for the past 30 years and there has been no let up."
Mr Field said that according to his information, those behind the Ulster Land and Property Company all wished to keep their identity secret.
The company is attempting to keep private homes, unused Orange halls, farms and businesses from falling out of unionist hands.
To prevent this they are giving interest free loans to Protestants under threat in Tyrone, Fermanagh, South Down and South Armagh, where the "ethnic cleansing" has reportedly intensified, even since the Good Friday Agreement.
One source close to the Ulster Land and Property Co Ltd said yesterday that, as the News Letter had exclusively reported in a front page lead story on September 19, even after the Omagh bomb atrocity farmers living in isolated west Tyrone farmsteads were still suffering from intimidation from republicans.
"There was no let up in these tactics of fear - even after what happened in Omagh," said the source.
"People living in remote parts of west Tyrone are still being put under pressure to get out and leave the land that has been in their families for generations."
People living in those rural areas believe that renegade members of the infamous West Tyrone IRA Brigade, who carried out some of the worst incidents of "ethnic cleansing" in places like Castlederg over the last three decades, are behind the latest veiled threats.
The Ulster Land and Property Co Ltd is already understood to have over �1 million in the bank, mainly due to contributions ranging from �50 to �200 from well-wishers.
One of the main aims of the new organisation is to stop border farms and other rural property like garages and shops falling into nationalist hands.
In the border city of Londonderry, as well as a population drift away from the predominantly nationalist/republican west bank area over the last 30 years, there has even been recent evidence that Protestants have been vacating their homes and workplaces in the Waterside as well.
They are leaving the Maiden City, a symbolic stronghold for Protestants for over 300 years, to live in places like Limavady, Coleraine and Portrush.
Londonderry-based DUP politician Gregory Campbell, who has for years been highlighting the drift of Protestants and the dwindling of a Protestant way of life away from the Foyle's west bank, has described the new company's formation as a welcome development.
Republicans in the past have even hinted that the River Foyle should act as a political borderline and that the west bank, which contains the commercial heart of Ulster's second city, should become part of Eire.
Nationalists have also been gradually taking over Protestant property in County Donegal, particularly along the border with Londonderry and Tyrone.
In 1891 Protestants made up 21 per cent of the Donegal population and up until the years between the two world wars they still owned most the land as well as much of property in towns and villages.
Protestants were also well represented in civic and community life in County Donegal.
Protestant churches thrived but there has been a significant drift away into the Ulster heartland, and overseas by many of them over the past quarter century.
In the latest census it was revealed that only 10.19 per cent of Donegal's population are now Protestants.
Further Information
Publisher: NEWS LETTER
Ref: NL/341
Published Date: 14-Oct-98
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