Police have confirmed they are investigating a possible link between supporters of British neo-Nazi group Combat 18 and a mass loyalist attack on a Belfast pub in which one man had his throat slashed.
Hugh McAnally, 32, was beaten to the ground and had this throat cut as up to 50 people attempted to storm Cosgrove's bar on Saturday after the screening of the Celtic-Rangers Old Firm derby. Some of the mob shouted, "Combat 18" and "Section F", a far-right soccer hooligan gang in Northern Ireland, witnesses said.
Yesterday a Police Service of Northern Ireland spokesman confirmed that officers were investigating possible links to the extremist group, which has had irregular links with the loyalists in the past, though less so in recent years since some members were told by the loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force at gunpoint to leave Northern Ireland.
Yesterday, loyalist sources and the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight said it was unlikely that Saturday's attack involved English members of Combat 18. A senior UVF source said that, as paramilitary groups became less active because of the peace process, there was a nucleus of younger loyalists who wished to emulate Combat 18 and its hooligan offshoots.
They were trying to stir up sectarian trouble in Northern Irish football, the UVF source said, but loyalists who had been through the Troubles, especially those who served time in prison, regarded these hooligan street fighters contemptuously.
Saturday's attack followed the end of the Irish Cup semi-final between Linfield, a club with a large loyalist following, and Cliftonville, which draws a lot of its support from the Catholic community.
Witnesses said the assault appeared to be well organised; those leading the charge wore scarves over their faces, and carried knuckledusters and knives.
The most high-profile incident involving Combat 18 in Ireland was 13 years ago when neo-Nazi hooligans started a riot in Dublin's Lansdowne Road, resulting in a friendly between England and the Republic of Ireland being abandoned.
