Loyalists mount anti-Catholic protest

Dozens of loyalists mounted a demonstration outside a new apartment block in south Belfast last night in protest at the fact that Catholics were moving into the building.

The protest in the staunchly loyalist Sandy Row area followed the distribution of sectarian leaflets calling for Catholics to be expelled from the apartment block.

Anti-Catholic and anti-nationalist slogans were also daubed on the walls of the building last year and, when workmen arrived to remove the graffiti, their van was set alight by men wielding baseball bats.

Local nationalist politicians have claimed the campaign is being orchestrated by loyalist paramilitaries.