A Roman Catholic man was beaten to death and another is in a critical condition after a sectarian attack in Northern Ireland on Sunday.

Kevin McDaid, a 49-year-old community worker dedicated to easing sectarian tensions, was attacked outside his home in Coleraine, Co Londonderry, by a mob of up to 40 youths while out looking for his children. The Police Service of Northern Ireland said last night that nine people had been arrested in connection with Mr McDaid’s death.

Damien Fleming, 46, was assaulted in a nearby street. The attackers were reportedly celebrating Rangers’ win over Dundee United that meant Rangers finished as champions of the Scottish Premier League.

Police are treating Mr McDaid’s death as murder and the attack on Mr Fleming as attempted murder. Detective Chief Inspector Frankie Taylor confirmed that the motive was sectarianism. He said that Mr McDaid had worked very closely with the police to try to improve the area. “He has been described to me as a man who would do anything for anybody,” he said.

Martin McGuinness, the Deputy First Minister, said that a sizeable group of loyalists was responsible for the attacks. “They decided it was a good idea to attack a Catholic area. I’m absolutely dismayed at this and I think at this very, very important time it’s important that people in the community identify those responsible and co-operate with the police to bring those murderers to justice,” he said.

Gregory Campbell, the Democratic Unionist MP for the area, also condemned the violence.

Mr McDaid’s wife, Evelyn, a Protestant, was also attacked, suffering bruising and cuts to the head. A local Sinn Féin councillor said that she had been struck in the face with a cudgel.

The murder scene was grimly reminiscent of the days of the Troubles. Police said that Mr McDaid, a father of four, was assaulted at random, although his attackers would have known he was a Catholic because of the area they were in. They were investigating the possibility that tensions had risen after Irish tricolours were put up on lampposts.

Mr McDaid’s son, Ryan, 22, said: “My father was a well-known man. He never did anybody any harm. He was well-loved.” Peter Neill, a neighbour, said that he was the “best big man you could have met.”

A local church minister said that youths had been out drinking after Rangers took the league title from their rivals Celtic.

Nationalist and unionist estates sit cheek-by-jowl in the town, with painted kerbstones marking the boundaries. Last summer violence erupted over a bonfire marking the anniversary of internment, when mainly Catholics were rounded up in 1971 and held without charge on the suspicion that they were involved with the Provisional IRA. This month the killers of Michael McIlveen, a Catholic schoolboy battered to death in a sectarian attack, were given life sentences.

“This is the second time that this kind of lynch mob has been involved in Coleraine,” John Dallat, a member of the Social Democratic and Labour Party in the Northern Ireland Assembly, said. “We need to outlaw these organisations.”

Sir Reg Empey, the Ulster Unionist leader, said: “The tragic events in Coleraine at the weekend remind us of how far we have come in recent years, but also of how far we still have to go.”

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