Tuesday, January 10, 2006
Loyalists forcing playwright out of North
Playwright Gary Mitchell, who is in hiding after loyalist attacks on his family, says he is on the verge of quitting Ireland's north for good, UTV has reported.In his first television interview since the violence started, Mitchell told Ivan Little today that his entire family had been forced out of the Rathcoole estate in Newtownabbey.
Mitchell has written extensively on the violent tensions within the Protestant loyalist community and has stated previously that he believes his success has caused paramilitaries who operate within that community to turn against him.
"There is a very small minority who are jealous and angry at someone else being successful, who are using every opportunity to lash out at me and my family," he said.
"Images of myself winning awards in Dublin is enough to give these people the impression I've sold out or done something against them.
"I doubt these people have ever seen anything I've written."
This is absolutely atrocious. It is sickening to see loyalists so intent on forcing out of the North those who do not conform to their narrow political viewpoint.
Unionists and the people of the wider world need to acknowledge how wrong these people are and must ask themselves what these people contribute to society in the North.
I think we desperately need to work towards a United Ireland that caters to all beliefs and traditions.
What is being offered in NI right now is quite frankly unacceptable and disgusting.
# posted by United Irelander @ 7:43 PM 
© 2008 United Irelander.
