A BELFAST writer who went into hiding following an attack by loyalist paramilitaries is to stage his latest play at the Feile an Phobail festival in west Belfast next month, writes Carissa Casey.

Gary Mitchell has written Remnants of Fear in an attempt to understand the motivation of the teenagers who attacked his home last November.

Following the attack and the bombing of his car, he was forced into hiding with his wife Alison and their eight-year-old son. His parents and other members of his extended family were also forced out of the Rathcoole area of north Belfast.

“Once the dust settled, I started thinking of the young guys who were charged with attacking me,” Mitchell said. “I also thought about the people who had manipulated them and convinced them that there was a legitimate reason to attack me and my family.”

In his new play, a father and uncle vie for the soul of a troubled teenage boy. “The father wants him to knuckle down and get a job but he can’t offer the lad any feeling of safety or any real possibility of fulfilling his ambitions.

“His uncle, a member of the UDA, can offer the lad what he wants: safety, money and an organisation that will protect him. But he has to do things for that organisation.”

Mitchell is unapologetic that a play focusing on loyalist tensions will debut in a nationalist festival.

“I hope it causes trouble in people’s minds and hearts,” he said. “I want people to be conflicted and to be aware of the circumstances of thousands of working-class Protestant people who live in fear from paramilitaries.”

Mitchell believes the attack on him came from an offshoot of the UDA in Rathcoole.

He has long had difficulties with loyalist paramilitaries, who resent his exploration of issues facing the Protestant community.

“The loyalist working class doesn’t have a political voice and it doesn’t support one either,” he said. “Working-class Protestants, particularly in north Belfast, have no interest in politics and that’s a lot to do with the fact that most people are living in fear.”

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