Talks are offered to ease tensions in villages

Both the PUP chairman in East Antrim Billy Adamson and Sinn Fein’s spokesman in the area, Oliver McMullan, said they would be “happy” to discuss the situation with police.

Responding to an article in last week’s Larne Times in which a member of Carnlough Residents’ Coalition claimed offers of meeting with unionists had been spurned, Mr Adamson said: “As one who puts emphasis on a progressive brand of unionism and who has worked proactively to reduce tension between our communities and to move things forward, I have met with and am willing to meet anyone from the nationalist community to discuss how to tackle these issues, particularly between younger people in Glenarm and Carnlough.”

He queried whom in the unionist community had been approached, and when.

On a claim that sectarian abuse had been visited on Carnlough youths in recent years, Mr Adamson said: “I have no hesitation in condemning that unreservedly, but I'm of the opinion that the evidence speaks for itself since inevitably Glenarm seems to be the area these flare-ups occur in.”

Mr Adamson referred to anti-loyalist graffiti that was daubed on a house that had been vacated three days earlier by a Protestant family in Carnlough recently. He asked: “Is this evidence as to how unionists are accepted in Carnlough?

“As I have consistently said, I'm willing to meet with anyone to try to defuse and resolve issues and I'd particularly like to meet with those from the nationalist community who think that sectarian graffiti and provocative flag flying is the way forward and hopefully try to demonstrate that there's a better way to do things to the benefit of all.”

Mr McMullan said the graffiti painted on the empty house was “the work of one or two mindless idiots who speak for nobody only themselves and their warped way of thinking”.

He added: “I welcome Mr Adamson’s offer of talks to address the tensions between the youths in Glenarm and Carnlough and I would urge that the police be present because there are issues of concern, like the fact that no one has been made amendable for an attack on the home of an elderly woman in Glenarm, or a coordinated attack in the village during which a Carnlough man’s car was attacked and wrecked by people brought in from Ballymena and Broughshane, yet in Carnlough there have been instances were young people have been booked and summonsed.

“The perception is that there is inequality in enforcement in the two areas and that is something that is getting under the skin of young people in Carnlough,” said the Sinn Fein spokesman.