Nazi symbols outside Antrim’s Ability cafe ‘shocking’ for staff

Updated 1 hour ago

The director of a training organisation for people with learning disabilities said the discovery of Nazi symbols outside his shop was “shocking and disturbing”.

David Edmont is chief executive of the Bridge Association, a non-profit training organisation, which runs the Hug a Mug café in the Castle Mall in Antrim.

He said it was particularly difficult for interns who “don’t fully understand the situation.”

After asking what the symbols meant, staff with learning disabilities had to be reassured that the graffiti had “nothing to do with them”.

On Tuesday, a 30-year-old man was arrested and later released on bail by police investigating the incidents.

Speaking earlier on BBC’s The Nolan Show, Mr Edmont explained the “horror” of having to explain the symbols to staff.

“Our adults have learning difficulties and do not understand the tension that exists,” he added.

Mr Edmont called on newly elected South Antrim MP, Ulster Unionist Robin Swann, to take action.

Speaking at Stormont on Monday, Mr Swann said he had asked to meet with police to discuss the racist graffiti.

Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland director of human rights charity Amnesty International, said the graffiti was part of a “sustained campaign of sectarian and racist intimidation across Antrim dating back to May”.

“This is not just graffiti, this is the forced displacement of people from their homes through a violent and organised campaign of intimidation,” he told The Nolan Show.

He called on police and legal authorities to “bring those responsible to justice” and “send a clear signal that this is not acceptable in Northern Ireland in 2024”.

He said those responsible were “organised paramilitary gangs”, “probably armed” and “certainly dangerous”.

“The sad reality is that through this campaign of intimidation, the racists are winning because people have been forced out of the community.”