A Catholic man in Northern Ireland has been beaten to death by a gang of men claiming to be members of the Ulster Defence Association.
Kevin McDaid, 49, died on Sunday evening in Coleraine, County Londonderry after a gang of up to 40 men invaded a primarily Catholic housing estate following the victory of the Glasgow Rangers in the Scottish Premier League. Another man, Damien Fleming, 46, is in intensive care following an attack by another gang, which police are treating as attempted murder.
McDaid’s wife Evelyn, a Protestant, suffered serious head injuries in the attack. She told reporters, “UDA, they called themselves the UDA. I went across to help him and they beat me while they beat him.
“My neighbour had to step in to save me and she was pregnant and they beat her too and she shouted ‘I’m pregnant’ and they didn’t care.”
She added, “It was all to do with religion, and I’m not even a Catholic. I am a Protestant, it’s a mixed marriage, but they just seem to hate us so much.”
Despite the death of her husband, Mrs McDaid called on the Catholic community to refrain from revenge attacks saying, “He wouldn’t want retaliation for it.”
“He wouldn’t want my sons to get hurt, he wouldn’t want this. He was trying to keep the peace, he didn’t want all this, the nonsense that’s been going on here for years and years. He wanted peace.”
Mr McDaid was a former plasterer and had been serving as a community worker at the time of his death. He had three sons and a foster son. Flowers and Celtic scarves have been left near the scene of his death.
His widow said, “My life’s over … A big part of me is missing now. He was my soulmate and now that’s finished. I have to try to go on for the wee foster boy and my other three sons. I have to try and go on but I’ve lost a very big part of me and I can never replace that, never ever.”
One of their sons, Ryan McDaid, claims that police did not do enough to prevent the death of his father.
“The police sat and watched as Dad died, they never moved … There were four police officers in a car and they sat and watched from Pates Lane. They never moved, never came, never helped.
“Before I rang the police on my mobile I was shouting at them [the police in the waiting patrol car]. They didn’t want to know, they were 100 yards away. They saw the whole thing and did nothing. He died in my arms, dad was staggering up the road, he had gone out to help Damien. Damien was getting beaten and I rang the police on my mobile. Four or five times I rang 999. They said they were coming.
“When dad staggered up and he fell I was trying to bring him around again and I rang the ambulance on my mobile as he was in my arms. Police arrived in a van and ran up and gave Dad CPR but it was too little too late.”
He added that the family would be bringing the case before the Police Ombudsman’s Office. Police have launched an investigation into the circumstances surrounding Kevin McDaid's death.
