PAINT ATTACK ON REPUBLICAN GRAVES IN BELFAST 02/27/07 10:39 EST

The graves of nearly 40 people have been desecrated by
vandals in an overnight attack on the republican plot at
Milltown Cemetery in west Belfast.


Paint was thrown over the headstones, including those of
hunger striker Kieran Doherty and three IRA members killed
by the SAS in Gibraltar.


The main memorial defaced contained a copy of the 1916
proclamation of Irish independence and it will need special
treatment to return it to its original condition.



It is the fourth attack on the plot in the last six years.


In 2004, there was a series of attacks on the graves of
republicans, including that of hunger striker Bobby Sands.


Bobby Sands, an IRA prisoner, died in 1981 aged 27 after
refusing food for 66 days in a protest over political status
for republican prisoners in the Maze prison. He was the
first of ten men to die.


On this occasion, Bobby Sands' grave, as well as that of
fellow hunger striker Joe McDonnell, was left undamaged.


Padraic McCotter, chairman of the Belfast National Graves
Association said three or four republicans were buried in
each of the 12 plots.


"It is just wrong," he said, as experts worked to try to
remove the gloss paint from the plot.


"Sixty-six British soldiers are buried in Milltown and not
one of their graves is touched. That is the way it should
be. The Republican graves should be treated in just the
same way."


Mr McCotter said the yellow paint which had been poured over
the 1916 Irish Proclamation of Independence on the central
monument at the plot was proving difficult to move.


He said that certain graves had been deliberately untouched.
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