BELFAST (Reuters) - Hardline Protestant guerrillas of the Loyalist Volunteer Force claimed responsibility on Wednesday for a failed bombing in Northern Ireland. A caller from the outlawed LVF made the claim in a call to a Belfast television station, using a recognised code word. "The bomb did not go off due to human error," the man said. "But next time it will." British forces said earlier they had foiled the attack, directed at a St Patrick's Day party in a club near a Roman Catholic church. Police evacuated the building and nearby homes late on Tuesday while an army bomb disposal officer disarmed the "improvised explosive device" left at the front of the recreation club in the mainly Protestant town of Larne. The club was holding a party featuring a children's Irish dance troupe to celebrate Ireland's national day. Condemning the attack, club official Charlie Massey said the club tried to encourage good community relations and both Protestants and Catholics had been at the function. The LVF, which backs continued British rule in Northern Ireland, was blamed for the bar-room murders earlier this month of two friends, a Protestant and a Catholic, in the usually peaceful village of Poyntzpass. One of those charged, David Keys, was found murdered in his cell in the high-security Maze prison at the weekend. He had been held in a wing of the prison used to house LVF prisoners. His funeral took place in Belfast on Wednesday. Northern Ireland has suffered years of sectarian violence linked to decades of division between Protestants and Catholics. Majority Protestants tend to support British rule but many minority Catholics want union with neighbouring Ireland.