Recent acts of terror cannot be tolerated

In recent years the run-up to the Twelfth and the actual celebrations themselves have been largely peaceful, as people went about their lawful business of celebrating their faith and culture.

However, this year there has been a double challenge to lawful authority from both dissident republicans and loyalist paramilitaries, believed to be the UVF.

In Londonderry, it is clear that dissident republicans have been orchestrating petrol bomb and stoning attacks on the Protestant Fountain estate for several nights in a row this week. Part of the reason has been to foment sectarian tension at one of the most contentious periods of the year in a city which has led by example in consensus politics.

The other reason became clear later in the week when shots were fired at police. Having studied police reaction to the rioting, the dissidents felt sufficiently emboldened to launch what were clearly murder bids on PSNI officers.

In east Belfast, the catalyst for trouble was a court order demanding that a contentious bonfire be lowered in height. Although it had been lowered, the NI Fire and Rescue Service estimated that it was five times above the safety limit, given the proximity of houses to the pyre.

Building bonfires which endanger property or lives is a red line which the statutor y authorities cannot ignore and whatever measures are required to ensure that bonfires adhere to legal limits should be taken.

Police believe that the east Belfast faction of the UVF were the sinister forces behind the bonfire and used their muscle to create trouble on the streets of east Belfast and in Newtownards. A loyalist umbrella force earlier this year said that paramilitary involvement in criminality would not be tolerated, yet it appears that each paramilitary fiefdom has its own interpretation of what is permissible.

While not underestimating the seriousness of events in Londonderry and east Belfast, it has to be acknowledged that these are isolated examples of lawlessness, ref lecting the paucity of public support for these groups.

The Twelfth is an occasion which is the centrepiece of Protestant culture and thousands of Orangemen will march at venues throughout Northern Ireland today, with even more people watching the celebrations. Great efforts have been made to create a festival atmosphere around the day and the organisers deserve to have the celebrations pass off peacefully.