NEW ULSTER TINDERBOX Spiteful EU has fanned the flames
Thugs ‘turn clock back’ to Troubles – as Biden calls for calm
RIOTERS in Northern Ireland were last night warned they risked ‘turning the clock back’ to the dark days of the Troubles amid violence on a scale not seen in years.
Those orchestrating the mayhem were told there was ‘no justification’ for their behaviour – with fears of a seventh consecutive night of disorder.
Last night, Joe Biden called for calm. White House spokesman Jen Psaki said: ‘We are concerned by the violence in Northern Ireland.’
In the worst scenes on Wednesday, an estimated 600 people gathered in West Belfast. Petrol bombs, fireworks and masonry were hurled, a bus was set on fire by hooded thugs and a press photographer was attacked.
Gates in ‘peace walls’ separating loyalist and republican neighbourhoods were forced open and violence flared between factions from both sides. Some of those involved were said by police to be as young as 13 or 14, having been ‘groomed’ by paramilitaries and criminal gangs. And 12-year-olds were said to have been involved in separate disorder on Sunday.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland said officers fired six plastic bullets in Wednesday’s clash. Eight officers were injured and two men aged 28 and 18 were arrested on suspicion of riotous behaviour. A total of 55 officers have
‘This is not protest but attempted murder’
been injured so far in clashes which have happened on a nightly basis since last week.
While the height of Wednesday’s violence occurred around Shankill Road and Springfield Road, in West Belfast, there have also been incidents in Newtownabbey, Carrickfergus, Ballymena and the Waterside area of Londonderry.
Northern Ireland Secretary Brandon Lewis was yesterday sent to the province amid appeals for calm. Assistant Chief Constable Jonathan Roberts revealed police are investigating whether there was any paramilitary involvement, given the level of pre-planning and orchestration.
He said children were being encouraged by adults who stood by and clapped. He added: ‘The fact it was sectarian violence and large groups on both sides is not something we have seen in recent years. We believe there was a level of preplanning. The crowds grew in numbers and attacked each other with multiple petrol bombs and multiple missiles, including masonry and fireworks, and attacked police. It is very lucky that no one was seriously injured.’
Some of the most shocking images involved the bus whose driver was forced off by hooded youths. Its handbrake was then let off, sending it coasting down a road as petrol bombs were thrown on board. A demonstration was held in support of the bus driver outside Belfast City Hall yesterday. A fellow bus driver said: ‘He must have been absolutely terrified.’
Doug Beattie, Ulster Unionist justice spokesman and a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly, said: ‘It’s awful, it’s tragic, it’s shameful. It’s not as bad as it used to be but if we do not stem this, we could turn the clocks back.’
Mr Beattie, a former British Army captain, said the rioting was the result of a ‘perfect storm’ – stemming from loyalist resentment about alleged preferential treatment given to IRA supporters, and frustration due to Brexit arrangements and coronavirus.
He also accused loyalist paramilitaries which have turned to drug dealing in recent years of ‘grooming’ young people and ‘putting young kids on the streets to cause violence’. Mr Beattie said Unionist frustration partly stemmed from the decision not to prosecute 24 Sinn Fein politicians who attended the funeral of IRA terrorist Bobby Storey last summer, in breach of coronavirus legislation.
He added that the Northern Ireland
Protocol resulting from Brexit had ‘upset the fine balance’ established in the 1990s peace process.
Kenny Donaldson of South East Fermanagh Foundation, which represents victims and survivors of the Troubles from both loyalist and republican backgrounds, said: ‘If someone was to lose their life, we could end up in a very dangerous place.’
Retired Army Colonel Tim Collins, who grew up in Belfast and whose family still live there, said: ‘The loyalists are frankly thugs and drug dealers taking advantage of an angry population and a lack of political leadership. There’s a huge power vacuum and gangsters are taking over.’
DUP leader Arlene Foster said: ‘This is not protest. This is vandalism and attempted murder. These actions do not represent unionism or loyalism. They are an embarrassment to Northern Ireland and only serve to take the focus off the real law breakers in Sinn Fein.’
Mr Lewis said: ‘The people of Northern Ireland deserve better.’ Boris Johnson and his Irish counterpart Micheal Martin discussed the violence on the phone before reiterating calls for calm.
ILOVE Northern Ireland and most of its people, and find it heartbreaking to see the province in the news today not in commemoration of its centenary year but once again because of vicious communal violence.
The law-abiding majority feel betrayed, and a new generation of young people is being encouraged by criminals to run amok, setting fire to buses and cars, throwing petrol bombs across the peace walls at neighbours with whom they disagree politically, and injuring anyone in uniform who is trying to stop them from wrecking the place.
Until the 1998 Belfast/Good Friday Agreement this kind of violence was so normal that it was often called recreational rioting. But, although it may have become less frequent, it has never gone away.
Two years ago, as she covered dissident republican violence in Derry, for example, the young journalist lyra McKee was murdered by a bullet intended for police.
This time, the riots are led by loyalists – and while the instigators have almost no political support, many Unionists share their grievances. Where dissident republican rage is driven by a desire to tear down British rule, loyalist anger comes from a belief that the British state is an appeaser of republicanism and abandoning them to the enemy.
The Unionist politicians who wanted Northern Ireland to work after the Good Friday Agreement agreed to share power with Sinn Fein – many of whose political leaders are ex-convicts, all of whom eulogise IRA terrorism, and none of whom apologise for past atrocities. But they now feel the country is being run from the shadows by IRA veterans whose aim is to destabilise the province.
The immediate trigger for this week’s violence is the failure of the justice system to deal with the arrogant flouting by the Sinn Fein leadership of the Covid rules everyone else is expected to obey.
last June, Sinn Fein leaders, including Michelle o’Neill, the Deputy First Minister, joined 2,000 others to attend the funeral of the intimidating ex-convict, prison-escapee and IRA ‘Director of Intelligence’ Bobby Storey. They even held a public meeting along the way addressed by Gerry Adams.
At the time, the limit for the number allowed to attend funerals was 30 people – which meant the republican party was spectacularly disregarding the restrictions they themselves set for the rest of society.
Yet, last week, after nearly a year of deliberation, the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) decided not to recommend any prosecutions of the rulebreakers. And it was this decision that maddened the loyalist rioters. But while the PPS announcement may have been the trigger, the main driver of this anger is the fallout from Brexit.
During Brexit negotations the EU, encouraged by the Irish government, cynically set out to weaponise Northern Ireland to scupper a deal or at the very least heavily punish the British.
There was a perfectly feasible way through smart technology and a Trusted Trader scheme to have a virtually invisible border on the Irish/EU side. But Theresa May and her negotiating team caved in to the ludicrously exaggerated warnings about how a land border would lead to a resumption of violence and the death of the 1998 Good Friday Agreement.
BY the time Boris Johnson took over in December 2019, the pass had been sold. And, to get a Brexit deal that worked, he had to agree to an arrangement known as the Northern Ireland Protocol which impedes trade between Northern Ireland and Great Britain.
out of sheer spite, the EU has chosen to interpret the rules as inflexibly as possible and cause maximum disruption. And, to make it even worse, Sinn Fein have been crowing mendaciously about how this leads inexorably to a United Ireland.
Brexit negotiator lord Frost is working to ameliorate the damage but Unionists have a genuine fear that Northern Ireland is being cut off from the rest of the United Kingdom by an internal border because, once more, the Government has caved in to threats of republican violence.
Though the scenes of violence this week are sickening and no one could condone them, it is hardly surprising that some angry loyalists decided to follow suit. Unionists don’t much trust British governments and constantly fear being sold out.
Urgently sorting out the scandal of the protocol is the least lord Frost and the Prime Minister can do to give the law-abiding and loyal Northern Irish people the centenary present they deserve.