Bigots target Fountain with hateful slogans

Jeannette Warke of the Cathedral Youth Club said she was approached by a number of local residents after the graffiti appeared plastered in huge letters over the Foyle Valley Railway Museum on Monday morning.

Vandals daubed “DEAR FOUTAIN [sic] RESIDENTS HOW’S YOUR CAGE!!” on the shutters of the museum.

On other property nearby the sectarian message was clear: “KILL ALL HUNS NOW - BSRY” and KILL ALL LOYALIST’S [sic] SCUM NOW! C18.”

The graffiti was plastered all over the museum site on the Foyle Road near the Fountain Abercorn Road interface.

An old steam engine in the grounds was also defaced and the front of the museum had “BSRY Rule” scrawled in large white letters over it. BSRY is thought to be an acronym for “Bishop Street Republican Youth.” C18 is thought to be an acronym for the far right organisation Combat 18.

Mrs Warke said the people of the Fountain were “quite hurt” by the hateful, misspelt slogans that appeared overnight and which were prominent in the eye-line of hundreds of motorists and pedestrians using the Craigavon Bridge and the Foyle Road.

“It’s terrible,” said Mrs Warke. “The women who spoke to me about it are quite hurt by it.

“Here we are trying to build community relations and you have this thrown in your face. But I’ve said it time and time again that this is the work of a small minority, who clearly need to be educated,” she added.

It is not the first time offensive graffiti has appeared in the grounds of the museum, a popular gathering place for street drinkers and youths. Graffiti endorsing dissident republicans and targeting a serving police constable appeared on the shutters of the museum over recent years.

And the fading remnants of a Swastika can still be seen on the riverside walkway beside the museum. It has been there since last summer.

The confused sectarian slogans appeared as the PSNI witnessed a sharp rise in racist, sectarian and homophobic crime in the city.

According to the PSNI's Hate Incidents and Crimes Quarterly Update hate crimes in the area have increased by almost 300 per cent.

Twenty incidents motivated by sectarian, racist or homophobic prejudice, were reported to police each week in the city.