Bigots target the Sentinel newspaper

A range of angry messages were posted on the shutters of the Foyle Valley Railway Museum which has been used as a posting board by anti-social elements on a regular basis over the past number of years. The string of vulgar taunts includes the injunction: "F**k the Sentinel!"

Once again the ratepayer will be left with the clean-up bill as council staff are forced to repair the criminal damage caused by the vandals.

Much of the graffiti is baldly sectarian in its nature with "HUNS will die" and "kill ALL HUNS" amongst the slogans defacing the museum grounds.

The rest is directed against the PSNI - "RUC OUT," "kill COPS," "PSNI SCUM" and the far right organisation Combat 18 - "COMBAT 18 SCUM."

This paper recently highlighted how bigoted graffiti attacking the community in the Fountain had been plastered in huge letters over the same building.

Vandals had daubed "DEAR FOUTAIN (sic] HOW'S YOUR CAGE!!," "KILL ALL HUNS NOW - BSRY" and KILL ALL LOYALIST'S (sic] SCUM NOW!"

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 had also been 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."

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.