Letters: Attack on Orange hall was a hate crime in the republican tradition of such hatred

The fire that destroyed Ballynougher Orange Hall was a republican hate crime reinforced with the IRA slogan painted on the hall.

It is clear the republican hatred for a quiet and peaceful Protestant community is so deep they couldn’t permit an historic Orange hall to remain without destroying it.

The Sinn Fein philosophy ‘ourselves alone’ only engenders such activity.

Don’t ever forget the IRA campaign in Mid Ulster and along the border areas was a plan to murder the Protestant community and create a Protestant free zone.

These actions were supported by Sinn Fein. Indeed they still say there was 'no alternative' to such actions.

The community must reject such acts of terror. Those responsible for this hate crime must be brought to justice.

Lord McCrea of Cookstown and Magherafelt, DUP peer