The united forces of North Belfast have come out fighting this week against death threats issued to local community workers by the Continuity IRA. 

Local people and colleagues of workers in both the Ashton and Wolfhill centres - who were singled out in the statement -   have been angered and disgusted by the threats against all North Belfast community groups who work with the PSNI.

A major campaign to have the Continuity IRA threat lifted will kick off in earnest tomorrow with a huge rally near Yorkgate.

The Continuity IRA's statement released on Tuesday said, “any community organisation in north Belfast who deal with PSNI will be under threat. These groups such as the Ashton Centre and Wolfhill Centre are not only putting themselves at risk but also their staff.”

The statement claimed the threat was issued  as a result of police harrasment of republicans in North Belfast over the past six weeks and said there would be “no second warning”.

Director of the 174 Trust  Bill Shaw described the threat as “crazy”. His cross-community centre hosted the first North Belfast DPP meeting last week and recently unveiled the results of a policing survey carried out in the New Lodge area attended by a high ranking PSNI officer.

"It's just crazy,” said Bill. "Elderly people are scared stiff, they want to feel free to phone the police if they're feeling threatened so to me, this threat is against them as well.”

Bill Shaw said he was angry about the threat as society, as a whole was trying to move forward together towards “something like normality after 30 years of war and conflict”.

“Here is a group that want to drag us into the past. We're not going to stand for it and any right thinking person would not stand for it,” he added.

At an event last night (Wednesday) honouring interface workers in North Belfast, the Lord Mayor of Belfast called on the dissident republicans to withdraw their threat and called on the community to show their support for their threatened workers.

"The community has to make its voice heard on this and I'm sure they will,” said Tom Hartley.

"These people represent no one, they have no base of support in the area, they are anonymous, whereas community workers are known by all, and work for all. This threat should be unreservedly condemned and withdrawn immediately."

Vice chair of the Ligoniel Improvement Association (LIA) Tommy Kelly said staff were genuinely worried.

"On behalf of the LIA all I can say is we will continue to work with any statutory body for the betterment of the people," he said.

The Ashton Centre said it too would not be stopped from carrying out its work and insisted the threats be lifted.

"What we want is the unconditional withdrawal of the threats," John Loughran said.

Staff believe the threats are credible but it won't stop them from carrying out their duties, he added.

"We will not be diverted from our mission of building a vibrant and confident North Belfast community. We want to keep a sense of normality, you can't do any more than that, and people are trying their best."

Director of the award winning peace and reconciliation centre Intercomm Liam Maskey slammed the threat as “a disgrace”.

"We have been used to suppression for so many years but we are trying to build a new shared peaceful Ireland now and we are not going to lie down with people who don't have a mandate or people who don't say where they're from but claim to represent the people," he said.

"They have announced war on this community and we won’t stand for it."

It's not the first time the Ashton Centre has come under threat. In July 2001 it came under gun attack from loyalists who opened fire on the creche, miraculously no one was injured.

This week extra security was introduced to protect more than a hundred children who attend the Ashton Centre’s three nursery groups every day. Similarly, security measures were enforced to protect a mother and toddler group at the Wolfhill Centre.

North Belfast has suffered disruption in recent months with several bomb alerts in recent months and another two in Stanhope Street and Victoria Parade discovered this week.

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

This threat against North Belfast workers comes at a time when the threat from so-called dissident republicans has never been higher, according to the Independent Monitoring Committee.