Police attacked with petrol bombs in Northern Ireland rioting

[Hugh Bloody Bastards]

Source: The Independent

Unionists criticised for ‘incendiary’ rhetoric as dozens of officers injured in days of unrest

Andy Gregory
2 hours ago

Leaders’ appeals for calm went unnoticed on Saturday as violence erupted in loyalist parts of Northern Ireland for yet another successive night, amid anger over Brexit and the policing of a formerly senior IRA figure’s funeral.

Three cars were hijacked and set alight in Newtownabbey, on the northern outskirts of Belfast, with the burning shells of vehicles pictured blocking the road at the Cloughfern roundabout, where a crowd gathered.

Police reportedly closed off the surrounding roads before moving in on the roundabout, where footage publicised by the Police Federation for Northern Ireland showed masked men running over to throw petrol bombs and other projectiles at an armoured police van from close range, and punching and kicking the vehicle.

It came hours after Stormont’s first minister, Arlene Foster, and the Northern Ireland secretary, Brandon Lewis, called for an end to the violence, after police said a riot involving up to 300 people at the unionist Sandy Row area in south Belfast left 15 officers injured.



Read more: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/northern-ireland-riots-petrol-bombs-b1826546.html

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Happy fucking Easter!

[COL Mustard]

1. And Here We Go Again

I hoped the Troubles were past, but sounds like they may flare up again.

[Miguelito Loveless]

3. Johnson was warned that Brexit

would reignite the conflict, but they considered a renewed civil war worth it.

[TxGuitar]

7. In civil war

Do you mean loyalists fighting the UK? This is not a republican vs loyalist grievance.

[Miguelito Loveless]

27. Yes, but it will eventually

involve Republicans, since of course it will. Again, this problem was predicted, in detail, and the BoJo government decided to go ahead and destroy the peace.

[TxGuitar]

5. This is not related to The Troubles

This violence is related to how NI unionists feel betrayed by Brexit. Totally a different and unrelated issue.

[multigraincracker]

2. Bloody Sunday

The Battle has just begun.

[TxGuitar]

11. Totally unrelated. NT

[multigraincracker]

20. There is a connection according this NYT article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/30/magazine/brexit-northern-ireland.html

In Northern Ireland, Brexit is stirring up an especially volatile brew. Sectarian tensions have been roiling in one form or another since at least the 17th century, when King James I encouraged the migration of Protestant colonists from Scotland and England to the northern Irish province of Ulster, where they enjoyed special privileges. An act of the British Parliament in 1920, during the Irish War of Independence, led to Ireland’s partition, creating a Protestant-majority Northern Ireland. Catholic grievances over discrimination fueled animosities that helped precipitate the Troubles. By the time of the Good Friday Agreement, some 3,600 people had been killed and tens of thousands injured. The peace deal created a power-sharing system of government, but it did not bring reconciliation. Currently, the two largest parties elected to the Northern Ireland Assembly are Sinn Fein — once the I.R.A.’s political wing — and the socially conservative Democratic Unionist Party, or D.U.P., which advocates continued union with Britain. The partisan rift between them has been so great that the assembly has not fully convened for nearly three years. Many people in Northern Ireland, exhausted with the sectarian paradigm, have tried to move beyond it; this is evident from the recent growth of the cross-community Alliance Party.

very long article that deals with the connection of BREXIT and the Troubles.

[NotANeocon]

23. Setting fire to a couple of cars on a traffic circle --

-- IS NOT an intercine war - no matter how bored Brit and US writers are.

If they must have real struggles to write about send them to Belarus or Myanmar. NI is a hurling squabble by comparison.

[multigraincracker]

24. You can't start a fire without a spark.

[NotANeocon]

26. A fire ain't a conflagration.

[Miguelito Loveless]

29. Until it burns long enough.

Sooner or later, Republicans/Catholics will be targeted by Loyalist factions.

[wnylib]

4. I abhor the violence, but I also

don't understand why the Brits feel obligated to keep Northern Ireland.

[TxGuitar]

6. Did you even read what the issue is?

It has nothing to do with the UK "keeping" NI. This is about barriers related to Brexit.

[wnylib]

12. Yes, I am very well aware of the

Brexit issue regarding NI. But it would not be happening in a unified Ireland, would it?

[TxGuitar]

18. My point is

This is not The Troubles. This is entirely a UK issue. It is not a ROI vs NI conflict. It is disingenuous to conflate the two.

[NotANeocon]

22. They can't help it Tx

If the issue is not binary then it's too confusing to think about - so it must be reduced to familiar binary whether the facts fit or not.

[wnylib]

32. Patronize much, oh you of

self-proclaimed superior intelligence?

If NI and the Irish republic had been allowed to unite as one nation independent of the UK, there would be no Brexit issue today.

[muriel_volestrangler]

30. The majority of the NI population still, narrowly, want to remain in the UK

That's the basic point - a government doesn't eject an area against its will.

[Peregrine Took]

8. "Give Ireland back to the Irish!"

the Beatles said it years ago.

My mom grew up Catholic in Northern Ireland and her family and other Catholic families were subject to all manner of cruelty and discrimination plus my dad fought in the Irish War of Independence.

[TxGuitar]

9. OMG

I am an Irish citizen. Please at least read the article before you post.

[TxGuitar]

10. People, please read the article first

This is not about Catholics or Protestants, it is not about Northern Ireland or the Republic of Ireland. It is about barriers related to Brexit.

[wnylib]

15. No, it is not a Catholic vs Protestant issue

this time. But would it be happening at all if NI and the Irish Republic were one unified nation, independent of the UK?

[TxGuitar]

17. No...

Because Brexit would not be affecting NI since there would be no NI.

[IronLionZion]

19. Loyalists view this as a step towards Irish reunification

as in, it starts with sea trade barriers then eventually can become a permanent sea border.

[wnylib]

31. Thank you. I agree. My question was rhetorical.

[IronLionZion]

13. Of course the British knew this would happen with Brexit

And they decided sea trade barriers to irritate the protestant loyalists would be better than a land trade barrier to irritate the Catholic republicans. Given the circumstances, it is the right decision.

Here's another article without paywall https://www.reuters.com/article/us-nireland-protests-idUSKBN2BQ0NV

[Joinfortmill]

14. Back to the Future

[discntnt_irny_srcsm]

16. Sarah & John / Personally, I hope John's wrong.

John: No, what you're trying to do is change what is.

Sarah: And what is?

John: That we're like animals! It's in the blood! It's natural! Peace? That's an accident! It's what is! When you're pushed, killing's as easy as breathing. When the killing stops in one place, it starts in another, but that's okay... 'cause you're killing for your country. But it ain't your country who asks you, it's a few men up top who want it. Old men start it, young men fight it, nobody wins, everybody in the middle dies... and nobody tells the truth! God's gonna make all that go away?

[Warpy]

21. I can't begin to imagine what's going through the brains of a bunch of drunk teenagers

which this sounds like, but it was obvious some of them came prepared to start a war.

Brexit was always going to be a mess in Ireland, hardening what had been a peaceful and porous border It's such a mess that people at the top on both sides have been talking about reunification, something that has likely enraged Ulster's hard line separatists.

I hope this doesn't signal another round of violence. Happy fucking Easter, indeed.

[NotANeocon]

25. PLEASE do not refer to Northern Ireland

-(which is actually South of Donegal) as Ulster.

NI is six very gerrymandered counties that in a Proportional Representation election would never have been separated and is only a PART of Ulster that could be held on to by rigged elections. (Ask a Georgian how this works).

[maxsolomon]

28. When people in the US condemn protests for violence here

remember that this is the norm in most of N. Europe over issues that would barely get Americans out of the house. makes what happened after George Floyd's killing look tame.

[jeffreyi]

33. May they find peace

Somehow.

[mahina]

34. Mairead Corrigan Maguire spoke here. It's worth every second.

The world needs hope