Nationalist representatives have accused loyalists of deliberately stirring up tensions in Belfast. This follows the appearance of a new Ulster Freedom Fighters' mural in the loyalist Shankill Road area celebrating a series of UFF/UDA atrocities.
The painting in Dover Street lists five massacres by loyalists - at Sean Graham's bookmakers, the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel, Co Derry, Kennedy Way council depot, the Devenish Arms and James Murray's bookmakers.
The inscription underneath reads: "Wouldn't it be great if it was like this all the time?" The slogan, from a Van Morrison song, has been used in reconciliation campaigns.
Five Catholics, Mr Jack Duffin (66), Mr Peter Magee, (18), Mr William McManus (54), Mr James Kennedy (15) and Mr Christy Doherty (51) died in a UDA gun attack on Sean Graham's bookmakers on the Lower Ormeau Road in south Belfast on February 5th, 1992.
Six Catholics, Ms Karen Thompson (19), Mr Steven Mullan (20), Mr James Moore (81), Mr Joseph McDermott (60), Ms Moira Duddy (59) and Mr John Moyne (50), and one Protestant, Mr John Burns (54), were killed when UDA/UFF gunmen sprayed the Rising Sun bar in Greysteel with bullets shouting "trick or treat" on October 30th, 1993. Another man, Mr Victor Montgomery (76), later died of injuries sustained in the attack.
One Catholic, Mr Aidan Wallace (22), was shot dead and a nine-year-old boy wearing a Celtic jersey seriously wounded in a loyalist attack on the Devenish Arms pub in south Belfast just before Christmas 1991.
Three Catholics, Mr Francis Burns (62), Mr Peter Orderley (50) and Mr John Lovett (72), were killed in a UDA attack on James Murray's bookmakers on the Oldpark Road in north Belfast on November 14th, 1992.
Two Catholic council workers, Mr Mark Rodgers (29) and Mr Jimmy Cameron (54), died when two masked gunmen opened fire on workers having a tea-break in the Kennedy Way council depot in west Belfast on October 26th, 1993.
An MLA for west Belfast, Mr Alex Attwood of the SDLP, condemned those behind the new mural, saying it was meant to "shock, upset and provoke" at a time when community tensions in Belfast were running high.
A spokesman for the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community, Mr Gerard Rice, said the "sickness" of the painting did not surprise him. "They want to make people believe they are under threat from Catholics when in reality they are under threat from loyalist drug barons," he said.
Nobody from the Ulster Democratic Party, the UDA/UFF political wing, was available for comment yesterday.
Less than two weeks ago the UFF's second battalion West Belfast brigade threatened to lift its ceasefire if alleged attacks on Protestant homes in west and north Belfast did not cease immediately. The threat was withdrawn, but community relations in parts of the city are tense.
