POLICE INVESTIGATING A spate of parcel bomb attacks targeting Celtic football club manager Neil Lennon and other high-profile supporters of the club have intercepted a similar package in Northern Ireland.
The parcel, addressed to the Glasgow offices of the Cairde na hÉireann nationalist group, was intercepted at the National Returned Letter Centre in Belfast.
The Daily Record newspaper said it believed the package had been sent from the Scottish county of Ayrshire – the same area from which four previous similar packages have been mailed – though this had not been confirmed.
The package was found at the UK’s National Returned Letter Centre, based in Belfast, where all undelivered mail without a return address is sent for sorting.
Police believe the package was posted at around the same time as some other packages – two of which were aimed at Lennon, a Northern Irish Catholic, while others targeted his lawyer Paul McBride QC, and a Celtic-supporting Labour member of the Scottish parliament.
A spokeswoman for Strathclyde Police told the Guardian said the latest device would be made safe in Belfast before being handed over to Scottish authorities for investigation.
Police spokesman Ruaraidh Nicolson said the people behind the packages were “clearly determined to cause fear and alarm to the individuals or organisations concerned.”
Cairde na hÉireann supports Irish expatriate organisations and campaigns for a united Ireland. A spokesman for the organisation last week told the Belfast Telegraph that the attacks on the Celtic manager, its player and supporters pointed to growing problems in Scottish society.
“We would see what happened as more about anti-Irish racism than sectarian,” Franny McAdam had said. “Take the bullets sent to Niall McGinn, Paddy McCourt and Neil Lennon earlier this year: they were three Irish-born Celtic players and that incident was motivated out of anti-Irish racism.”
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