On March 29, police officers were targeted in a petrol bomb attack in a predominantly unionized area of Tullymore, Derry / Londonderry, after attempting to separate a mob of about 40 people. Similar scenes took place in the city for five nights.
On Friday, April 2, the disorder spread to the south of Belfast, where a small protest led to an attack on police in a loyalist pocket of the Sandy Row area, where 15 police officers were left with burns, head and leg injuries.
Belfast County Chief Commander Simon Walls said officers “were subject to a sustained attack by rioters who have thrown a number of items at the police, including heavy masonry, metal rods, fireworks and manhole covers.”
Why is this happening?
Storey’s funeral drew about 2,000 people.
Loyalist communities have accused authorities of partisan hypocrisy surrounding that decision, saying they had made a decision last summer to cancel their traditional July 12 parades over Covid-19. and had missed events and funerals of loved ones because they adhered to those restrictions.
But many analysts also point to the recent and successful police crackdown on drug gangs and criminal activities supported and led by loyalist paramilitary forces.
Who’s rioting?
According to the Police of Northern Ireland (PSNI), most of the rioters are young people, with some participants as young as 12 years old.
The early days of the violence, which escalated over the Easter weekend, took place in predominantly loyalist areas in the cities of Belfast and Derry / Londonderry and the cities of Newtownabbey, Ballymena and Carrickfergus.
But that dynamic changed in west Belfast on Wednesday, as rioters from loyalist and nationalist communities clashed along the so-called peace line – a gated wall separating predominantly unionist and nationalist neighborhoods.
At one point, police struggled to close a gate designed to separate the areas during the violence, where gasoline bombs, bottles, masonry and fireworks were thrown.
At times more than 600 people were present, police said.
Earlier on Wednesday, a bus was also hijacked and set on fire on Lanark Way near the intersection with Shankill Road, where a press photographer was also attacked.
In some videos of the disorder shared on social media, adults can be seen encouraging and urging children to commit the violent acts, raising deep-seated concerns that the violence could be orchestrated by paramilitary groups.
On Thursday, the PSNI said they were still trying to confirm “whether or not paramilitary groups were involved” in the riots. Police did not say there was paramilitary involvement, but PSNI’s temporary assistant chief Jonathan Roberts said it was “clear that the violence had some degree of organization.”
On Thursday evening, clashes continued on Springfield Road in Belfast, with protesters throwing stones at police vehicles on the nationalist side of the peace line. Officers in riot gear, with dogs and a water cannon, moved in to disperse those involved.
The UPRG in South Belfast was the first loyalist group to call for an end to the disorder on Thursday. The Loyalist Communities Council (LCC), a group made up of unionist paramilitaries representatives and also associated with the UPRG, said in a statement Friday that “none of their associated groups has been directly or indirectly involved in the violence that has recently been has been observed. days. ”It added that“ the right to peaceful protest is a basic human right, ”but that any actions taken by members of the loyalist community must be“ completely peaceful ”.
The PSNI ruled out the involvement of loyalist paramilitaries in orchestrating the violence on Friday and appeared to be reversing their previous assessment.
At a press conference, Roberts said their “overall assessment” was that the violence that has taken place is “not orchestrated by a group, on behalf of that group.”
“There are certainly people who have been guilty of violence who have nothing to do with an illegal organization,” he said.
“We think there might be people who could have links with banned organizations who were present at the scenes of violence, but we don’t believe it has been sanctioned and organized by prescribed organizations for peaceful protests,” he added.
What does Brexit have to do with this?
The riots are unfolding amid mounting anger over a specific part of the Brexit deal.
The GFA marked an end to the Troubles – a term used to describe the period of violent conflict in Northern Ireland that lasted from the late 1960s to its signature in 1998.
But after the UK left the EU (and the internal market), a new plan – the Northern Ireland Protocol (NI) – was implemented.
The NI Protocol aims to eliminate the need for border controls between Northern Ireland (part of the UK) and the Republic of Ireland (an EU member).
Naomi Long, Justice Minister for Northern Ireland, said on Wednesday that “the UK government’s dishonesty and lack of clarity on these issues have contributed to a sense of anger in parts of our community”. Ireland.
Last month, the Loyalist Communities Council said it is withdrawing its support for the Good Friday Agreement, also known as the Belfast Agreement.
What do political leaders say?
After several consecutive days of disorder, British Prime Minister Johnson said on Wednesday that he was “deeply concerned about the scenes of violence” in Northern Ireland.
Irish Taoiseach Micheal Martin, speaking to Johnson later that day, said that “the way forward is through dialogue and working on the institutions of the Good Friday Agreement,” which ended decades of deadly sectarian violence in the United States. all of Ireland.
On Thursday, the White House joined Northern Ireland, British and Irish leaders to voice concerns about the violence, with State Department spokesman Ned Price warning that the Good Friday deal would not be a “victim of Brexit. may be.
Long, the Northern Ireland Justice Minister, has called on people to “stop before any lives are lost”.
At an emergency meeting of the Northern Ireland government on Thursday, Prime Minister Arlene Foster said the violence had tarnished the country’s reputation throughout its centenary.
We should all know well that when politics fails or is seen as a failure in Northern Ireland, those who fill the vacuum provide destruction and despair. We cannot allow a new generation of our young people to fall victim off that path or being besieged by someone who prefers the shadow to the light, ”Foster told the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Is there any sign that violence is diminishing?
Both communities are calling for peace. However, it is not clear whether that call will be heard.
On Saturday it will be 23 years ago that the Good Friday Agreement was signed.
Journalist Peter Taggart, CNN’s Emmet Lyons, Amy Cassidy, Niamh Kennedy contributed to this report.