An Irish republican terrorist group has threatened to murder any Catholic community workers found to be co-operating with the police.

The warning has been made by the Continuity IRA, a splinter group of the Provisional IRA, and echoes the campaign waged against people working with the security forces during the 1980s when builders and cleaners were targeted.

It also comes at a time when the threat from so-called dissident republicans has never been higher, according to the independent body that monitors paramilitary activity in Northern Ireland for British and Irish governments.

The Continuity IRA (CIRA) statement was handed to a priest and said that the group would regard any Catholics working in community initiatives involving the police as legitimate targets.

The threat singled out workers from the Ashton Centre in the New Lodge and the Wolfhill Community Centre in Ligoniel, both in North Belfast, where the Continuity IRA is trying to increase its influence. Police officers are finding increasing acceptance in predominantly Catholic areas and have visited the two centres as part of their outreach work.The two groups employ more than a hundred staff, with dozens of young people and pensioners taking part in a range of activities in the centres every day.

Extra security was introduced yesterday to protect more than a hundred children who attend the Ashton Centre’s three nursery groups every day. Similarly, security measures are expected to protect a mother-and-toddler group due to meet today at the Wolfhill Centre.

The Continuity IRA statement said: “These groups such as the Ashton Centre and Wolfhill Centre are not only putting themselves at risk but also their staff.” Claiming that the threat was in response to police harassment of republicans, it said: “There will be no second warning, this threat will only be lifted when the harassment of innocent civilians stops.”

North Belfast was a hotbed of paramilitary activity during the worst of the Troubles, with its patchwork of Protestant and Catholic districts vulnerable to opportunistic hit-and-run attacks.

During the Holy Cross primary school dispute in 2001, when children walked to school under police escort, loyalist paramilitaries threatened to kill Catholic teachers and postal workers in North Belfast.

In July the Continuity IRA threatened to kill Customs & Revenue staff and workers at the Northern Ireland Vehicle Licensing Authority, after accusing them of collaborating with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), which has an increasing number of Catholic officers.

Gerry Kelly, a Sinn Fein assembly member and former escaper from the Maze prison, said: “Literally every community group in North Belfast is under threat. These people cannot accept progress. They are threatening children and pensioners. They have no support and no political direction.”

Alban Maginness, a Social and Democratic Labour Party councillor in North Belfast, said that the threat was “dangerously ludicrous”. He said: “It is a measure of the success that the PSNI is having in nationalist communities that the CIRA has reacted in such a hostile and intimidating manner against those engaged in genuine community work.

“These community groups have given great service for many years and do not deserve to be intimidated by unelected, self-appointed bully boys.”

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