LONDONDERRY: Northern Irish police on Sunday criticised “disgusting” rioting by pro-Irish unity youths in Londonderry overnight that injured 10 police, the latest night of disorder to rock the UK region. The violent scenes in the city, also known as Derry, follow nightly disturbances in Belfast and elsewhere over the last week which initially mirrored unrest in English towns and cities in the wake of the Southport knife attack.
Police have blamed pro-UK loyalist paramilitary groups for helping to fuel the violence in the Northern Irish capital, which has outlasted the riots in England, where recents days and nights have been largely peaceful. The events there have been blamed on far-right agitators.
In Londonderry, the 10 officers were injured after rioters threw petrol bombs, fireworks and missiles from late Saturday.
“The scenes we witnessed were disgusting,” said Derry City and Strabane police Superintendent William Calderwood. “To see our officers injured as a result of this violence is appalling,” he said, adding that one arrest was made.
Up to 50 youths were involved in the clashes which followed a march through the city by pro-UK loyalists and lasted several hours.
The march, an annual Protestant parade through the Catholic-majority city near the border with the republic of Ireland, passed off earlier without incident. Disturbances during the annual Protestant marching season are a regular occurrence in Northern Ireland.
A week of racism-fuelled disorder in Northern Ireland, sparked by disturbances in English towns and cities, is proving harder to end, with fears the UK region’s sectarian divisions are feeding into the violence.
The violence has mirrored disorder across England, spurred by misinformation spread on social media about the suspected perpetrator of a knife attack in Southport on July 29 which killed three children. The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said Saturday that 31 people have been arrested during the disturbances.
“On a fundamental level the Belfast attacks are similar in its dynamic to anti-immigration protests in white working class areas in England, the Republic of Ireland and elsewhere in Europe,” said Peter McLoughlin, a politics lecturer at Queens University Belfast. “It is driven by racism and fear of the other, but in Northern Ireland it also interfaces with sectarian political dynamics,” he said. — AFP
