BELFAST, Northern Ireland – The violence that has spread in Northern Ireland this month, from Londonderry and Belfast to smaller cities, has been a clear reminder that this corner of the UK remains bitterly divided politically and culturally.
Night after night, rioters in loyalist areas threw bricks and petrol bombs at police, who responded with water cannons. So far, almost 90 officers have been injured. Dissident Republican groups, such as the New IRA, have also moved to renew a bombing campaign aimed at intimidating the police force. On April 19, a bomb was discovered in front of an officer’s house near the town of Dungiven.
For many observers, the violence is reminiscent of the conflict known as the “Problems”, which for three decades pitted pro-British loyalists and unionists against Irish nationalists who wanted Northern Ireland to break free from the United Kingdom and unite with the Republic. independent Ireland.
More than 3,600 people died during the conflict and tens of thousands were injured. Despite the vast majority of Northern Ireland seeking peace, the era has come to be defined by violence and unrest, punctuated by frequent bombings, riots, attacks on police, sectarian crimes and military repression.
Since the Good Friday Agreement of 1998, the conflict no longer involves paramilitary factions using bombs and bullets to promote their cause. However, the agreement was only a step in a stuttering, ongoing peace process, and tensions continued to subside, fueled by the loyalists’ perception that their culture and identity were being eroded.
These frustrations have reached a boiling point this year, following tense negotiations between the European Union and the British government over how to implement Brexit, loyal activists in Belfast told NBC News.
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland remains a country. However, under the terms of the Brexit agreement, Northern Ireland will continue to be subject to EU trade and customs rules.
This decision – known as the Northern Ireland Protocol – was designed to avoid creating a tough economic border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Irish and European leaders have repeatedly warned that strengthening the border could lead to violence. Instead, customs controls will be imposed on goods crossing the Irish Sea in Northern Ireland.
The unionists believe that the British government has given priority to the interests of Irish nationalists, but leaving them to feel betrayed and adrift.
“Northern Ireland is being removed from the United Kingdom on the basis of nationalist threats of violence,” said loyalist activist Jamie Bryson. “I mean, a child can understand that.”
Anger has risen since the terms of the Brexit deal came into force earlier this year. Then, in March, the Council of Loyalist Communities, an umbrella organization that provides political representation to several loyal paramilitary groups, officially withdrew its support for the Good Friday agreement. Loyal community workers refused to help police prevent illegal gatherings.
“People in loyal communities feel that their identity is always threatened,” said activist Stacey Graham. “Now we have the protocol and they feel like they are not equal citizens as the rest of the UK and I think it has just reached a boiling point.”
In addition to Brexit grievances, loyalists frequently accuse law enforcement of “two-tier police” – claiming that the Northern Ireland Police Service, like the British government, now treats loyalists more harshly than nationalists.
This belief is strongly disputed by nationalists and police, but was exacerbated when prosecutors recently decided not to prosecute Irish Republican Sinn Fein leaders, who were among thousands to attend the funeral of the former IRA interim leader. Bobby Storey. in apparent violation of coronavirus restrictions against mass gatherings.
“There is a pattern of pacifism towards Republicans and especially Sinn Fein,” said Moore Holmes, a loyalist activist in East Belfast. “There has never been a clearer and clearer example than Bobby Storey’s funeral.”
Sam McBride, a political editor of the unionist-leaning Belfast News Letter, said Storey’s funeral management undermined police support, but did not see it as part of a wider police favoritism campaign.
“I don’t think it’s fair to characterize those mistakes as evidence of prejudice, because those were mistakes that went on both sides of the community,” he said. “Some of them are related to politics, but some of them are also the consequences of only bad police decisions.”
Dolores Kelly, a prominent member of the Democratic Socialist and Nationalist Labor Party and a member of the Police Committee overseeing the work of the Northern Ireland Police Service, said recent independent police inspections had not identified the biased treatment of loyalist communities. But he also criticized the nationalists who attended the Storey funeral.
“I believe that Sinn Fein, and especially the Republican movement, must answer serious questions about their judgment and how they felt they were above all others, both in spirit and in the law of Covid restrictions,” he said. she.
For his part, Chief Police Officer Simon Byrne defended the police case and insisted that the police handled the funeral impartially.
In addition to the political underpinnings of loyalist anger, there is also concern that paramilitary groups may have helped instigate violence in order to maintain control over certain areas.
News reports have highlighted older men leaving young people in troubled places in their cars, and videos on social media appear to show adults cheering on outrageous young people.
Allison Morris, criminal correspondent for the Belfast Telegraph, said riots in Newtownabbey, for example, could benefit drug trafficking operations led by a faction of the Ulster Paramilitary Defense Association, which had faced repression by local police. and the Crime Agency.
“They believe that if they revolt, they can turn their area into a no-go area for community police,” she said. “The community police are the ones who collect information about these people.”
Under the control of shady paramilitary groups and being constantly politically overtaken by Irish nationalists, the loyalists also feel disappointed in their own elected representatives, who, along with almost all mass political figures, condemned the uprising, while expressing many of the same concerns.
“It’s just empty words in the media, on the radio, on TV and not really getting involved with the local people on the ground,” Graham said.
According to McBride, the main party of loyalty and unionism, the Democratic Unionist Party, has been at the center of power for so long that it has “detached from some of its roots” as an anti-establishment, center-left force.
The death of Prince Philip on April 9 has almost completely stopped the violence so far, as the United Kingdom is experiencing a period of national mourning. But summer in Northern Ireland is often a season of unrest, as loyalist and unionist brand troops traditionally parade the streets. There are already concerns about what the coming weeks and months will bring, as younger loyalists want to make their presence felt.
“You have hawks and pigeons,” Morris said. “You have older men who went to jail, men who went through trouble, lost people and clearly don’t want a return to the past. Then you have younger people who want to take a much tougher approach.
“It doesn’t take a majority to destroy peace, it just needs a minority – 1,000 people could stand in the way.”