A sign appearing to threaten a group of estate agents not to lease or sell property to “foreign nationals” in a mainly loyalist village is being treated as a hate crime by the PSNI.
It is understood a warning sign naming eight local estate agents was put up in the Moygashel area, near Dungannon, in Co Tyrone in recent days.
The sign states that “Moygashel continues to reject housing of foreign nationals” before listing the local firms.
The sign adds: “Lease or sale of property to unsuitable tenants may result in personal accountability of the agent”.
The sign also claims that the list “is not exhaustive”.
Some of the businesses named on the menacing signs are well known in the Mid Ulster area.
It is understood one of the property firms named has been incorporated by another of those listed.
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A spokeswoman for the PSNI said the force received a report about the sign on Sunday.
“The matter is being treated by police as a hate incident," she said.
“Our local Neighbourhood Policing Team have been undertaking enquiries in the area and we have been in touch with parties on this notice to offer advice and guidance."
The spokeswoman added that police are also investigating criminal damage at a house in the Moygashel Park area sometime between Friday, October 27 and Saturday, October 28.
"Glass in the front bay windows was smashed and white paint thrown on the wall beside the door," the spokeswoman said.
"This is being investigated as a hate crime and enquiries are continuing."
Asked if there was any paramilitary involvement, the spokesman said: "We are investigating a number of lines of enquiry to determine who was involved."
Conor Mallon, of Best Property Services, which has been identified, believes the sentiment expressed on the sign does not reflect the majority view in the Moygashel area.
“Obviously from an agent’s point of view, it would be illegal for any agent to discriminate against anybody on grounds of race, creed, age, sex, so it’s illegal,” he said.
“We have many contacts and clients from the Moygashel area and, by and large, most of them would not support that view and I would have thought it’s a minority view within the area and it’s unfortunate in these times that there are still people that take that kind of approach to things.”
The appearance of the signs comes days after similar “sinister" posters were put up in the Belvoir area of south Belfast warning landlords against housing "illegal immigrants".
Independent councilor Barry Monteith was critical of the sign.
"Signs like this are the same as the 'no Irish, no blacks, no Ddogs' signs that were prevalent a few years back.
"Unacceptable then, unacceptable now.
"Many in Moygashel and further afield will be dismayed at the erection of such signs."
SDLP councillor Karol McQuade said: ““This blatant racism and attempt to intimidate local businesses must be condemned in the strongest possible terms.
“No group has the right to control who lives where, everyone has the right to a home that they can call their own and the sinister elements behind these signs cannot be allowed to exert influence over local communities in this way.”
Moygashel has also been the scene of racially motivated incidents in the past.
In 2014, a message was painted warning landlords not to rent properties to "foreign nationals".
Another sign displayed in the area that year stated: "It is not racist to protect your own community."
In December 2019 a couple and their young children were forced to flee their home after an oil tank and shed were set ablaze in the back yard of their property in the Jacksonville Road area.
A year later images dismissing the Black Lives Matter movement appeared in the village.
The poster showed a UDR member kneeling down while pointing a rifle along with the with the words “how real men take a knee”.
The poster appeared after a wave of global outrage at the death of African American George Floyd in Minneapolis when a white police officer held a knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes.
In the aftermath many people, including sporting stars, adopted the gesture of dropping to one knee during protests.
In July this year an image of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and a tricolour were placed on top of a loyalist bonfire in the village.
Images glorifying the UVF and Killer Wesley Somerville have been hung from lampposts in the area in recent years.
The nationalist controlled Mid Ulster District Council has also been singled out for attention in the past.
