SDLP man hits out after death threats

The chairman of a local policing partnership board in Northern Ireland today hit out at those who sent him a death threat.

Newcastle-based nationalist SDLP councillor Eamonn O’Neill received a sympathy card and bullets in the post this morning.

The incident was the latest in a series of threats and security alerts involving SDLP members serving on district policing partnerships.

Mr O’Neill, a former Assembly member who is the chair of Down District Policing Partnership, said: “I am sure that those responsible for this stunt are doing it in reaction to my membership of the local District Policing Partnership.

“It is all too easy for faceless, fascist cowards to mount this type of cheap and sinister attack, but they should realise now, if they have not realised it before, that it is not easy to intimidate SDLP members out of delivering the new beginning on policing that Patten promised.

“This is the real measure of political courage and provides much more for the community than sticking a bullet in an envelope and buying a stamp.”

Last month Mass cards and packages containing white powder were sent to the offices of SDLP leader Mark Durkan, Foyle Assembly member Pat Ramsey and the chairman of the District Policing Partnership in Derry, John Kerr.

Similar packages were also sent to the party’s headquarters on Belfast’s Ormeau Road and to a member of the Cookstown DPP in Co Tyrone.

The SDLP is the only nationalist party to have signed up to policing arrangements in Northern Ireland.

Its members and nationalist members of district police boards have become the targets mainly of dissident republicans opposed to their move.