01/07/2011

Rosslea Orange Hall Destroyed By Fire

A fire in County Fermanagh has destroyed an Orange hall in the early hours of Friday morning.

Police and the fire service are investigating the cause of the blaze at Inver Orange Hall in Rosslea, which is a result of a suspected arson attack.

The alert was raised after a woman who lives nearby saw the flames.

DUP MLA for Fermanagh & South Tyrone Arlene Foster condemned the attack calling it a sectarian attack on an isolated rural community.

She also suggested there had been a level of organisation to the attack.

Speaking on Friday Morning, Ms Foster said: "Inver Orange Hall is a community hall serving a small rural community in County "Fermanagh. It would appear that the hall has been deliberately attacked and destroyed by people motivated by nothing other than sectarian hatred for their Protestant neighbours.

"It would appear that there was a high level of organisation behind this attack with a phone call made to the emergency services about an alleged incident in another area of the County.

"This was a deliberate attempt to draw those services away and allow those responsible to carry out the arson attack. I have spoken today to members of the Lodge who use the hall and will be visiting it later to show my support with a Protestant community in the area who are suffering these calculated attempts to intimidate them."

Meanwhile, Ulster Unionist Harold Andrews said the hall would be missed very much. "It is going to be a serious loss for the Protestant community," he said.

"It is used by a wide range of Protestant people in the area. There is a very successful ladies' group with 24 or 25 members; also the Orange Lodge, the local band and a few other organisations."

(DW/GK)

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