Riot police have deployed water cannons to quell demonstrators, as violence continues in Belfast. Tensions are rising in the city amid frustrations over post-Brexit trade barriers.
Nationalist youths gesture towards a police line in Belfast, as violence in the region continues for a seventh night.Image: Peter Morrison/AP Photo/picture alliance
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Violence continued late Thursday in Northern Ireland as police deployed water cannons against demonstrators. Around 100 youths approached armored vehicles in an Irish nationalist area of Belfast and threw stones at authorities. The crowd was later dispersed by riot police.
An outbreak of violence late Wednesday had left at least 50 police officers injured as crowds of mostly young men set a bus on fire with petrol bombs.
"Destruction, violence and the threat of violence are completely unacceptable and unjustifiable, no matter what concerns may exist in communities," the executive said in a statement.
"While our political positions are very different on many issues, we are all united in our support for law and order and we collectively state our support for policing and the police officers who have been putting themselves in harm's way to protect others."
The Northern Ireland executive is made up of unionist, nationalist and centrist partiesImage: Getty Images/AFP/A. Dennis
What have Northern Irish leaders said about the unrest?
Northern Ireland First Minister Arlene Foster, of the unionist or loyalist Democratic Unionist Party that supports being part of the UK, and Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, of the nationalist Sinn Fein party advocating Irish unity, both condemned the unrest and the attacks on police.
"No brick, no bottle, no petrol bomb thrown has achieved, or can ever achieve anything but destruction, harm and fear," Foster said during the urgent assembly interrupting legislators' Easter break.
What is happening in Northern Ireland?
Last week, violence erupted in the border city of Londonderry and spread to the capital Belfast over Easter weekend.
Protesters burned cars and attacked police, throwing Molotov cocktails and stones. In response, police formed ranks with riot shields and armored vehicles to retake the streets, arresting teens and young adults.
On Wednesday, violence flared near the Shankill Road in west Belfast by one of the so-called "peace walls" that divides the mostly Protestant unionist community from the mainly Catholic Irish nationalist stronghold of the Falls Road.
A bus burns on the Shankill road area of West Belfast Northern Ireland on April 7Image: Peter Morrison/AP/picture alliance
The unrest comes amid growing frustration in the unionist or loyalist community at new Brexit trade barriers between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom.
The police's decision not to prosecute members of the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein party for breaching COVID-19 measures has fueled the unrest. The party received backlash over a funeral last June that attracted nearly 2,000 attendees during coronavirus restrictions which at the time limited funeral ceremonies to a maximum of 30 people.
The funeral mourned Bobby Storey, an Irish Republican Army (IRA) member. He was considered a powerful IRA intelligence figure.
How have politicians reacted?
European Commission spokesman Eric Mamer condemned the violence "in the strongest possible terms."
UK Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Brandon Lewis on Thursday was headed to Belfast for emergency talks, the BBC reported.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson condemned the unrest, saying "the way to resolve differences is through dialogue, not violence or criminality."
Johnson telephoned with his Irish counterpart Micheal Martin "about the concerning developments in Northern Ireland," where they stressed that "violence is unacceptable" and "called for calm" and "dialogue," according to Martin's office.
The subject also came up at the White House's daily press briefing.
"We are concerned by the violence in Northern Ireland," White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki told reporters, adding that the Biden administration joined calls for "calm" after days of unrest.
The city was the center of sectarian conflicts between 1969 and 2001 that left over 1,600 people killed throughout the militarily occupied city.
The Good Friday Agreement of 1998 is largely credited with ending what had become a low-level civil war. One of its key stipulations was keeping the land border open between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland — a development made possible in no small part because of the UK and the Republic of Ireland both being EU members in the single market and the customs union at the time.
Brexit negotiators aimed to protect the Good Friday Agreement. They drafted the Northern Ireland Protocol, which kept it in the EU's customs union and enabled the border to remain open.
However, this meant that checks on specific goods bound for Northern Ireland from the rest of Britain — no longer a part of the single market and customs union — would be required.
Northern Ireland: New scars in Derry, Londonderry after journalist's murder
Since the murder of investigative journalist Lyra McKee, the Northern Irish border city of Derry, Londonderry has been more on edge than usual. Threatening terrorist graffiti litters the estate where McKee was shot dead.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Threats in broad daylight
Imitation road signs on the Creggan Estate in Derry, Londonderry tell locals in no uncertain terms that they should not cooperate with police in the aftermath of Lyra McKee's murder. This image of a rat with a gun's crosshairs trained on it is captioned "Informers will be shot," and signed "IRA," in reference to the Irish Republican Army terror group.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Some cleanup efforts, but messages keep coming
Cleanup efforts have already taken place in the area: The white walls of the building opposite have a fresh coat of paint to cover extreme nationalist graffiti. But as quickly as the threats are cleared, new ones appear. Local police have said that it's not their responsibility to clear away such material, possibly suspecting that their presence for this task could do more harm than good.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Locals leave it alone
In the immediate aftermath of the April riots on Creggan Estate, when Lyra McKee was shot while observing the unrest near a police 4x4 vehicle, messages of solidarity were posted and pro-IRA graffiti was altered to send messages of peace instead. But eventually, ordinary people's defiance wanes. This sign warns against talking to the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland's police).
Image: DW/M. Hallam
More permanent signs of strife
On the same street, just across the road from the mock road signs, the local car wash carries a large poster calling for the release of nationalist or republican prisoners arrested by Northern Irish authorities. Many houses are decorated in similar ways in the area. Irish flags are another common sight.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Cemetery sentry
A short walk away, the picturesque Creggan Parish Church graveyard peers down on the estuary and the city below. Most of the graves belong to ordinary people, but paramilitary monuments to former members of the Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) — an Irish republican paramilitary group formed during Ireland's "Troubles" — also take pride of place at the burial site.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
'Sunday, Bloody Sunday'
Creggan Estate is just up the hill from the 1972 "Bloody Sunday" (or "Bogside Massacre") memorial, near Derry's "Peace Wall" separating the nationalist, largely Catholic population from the loyalist, majority Protestant part of the city. British soldiers shot 28 unarmed civilians at what began as a protest. Thirteen died outright, another later of his wounds. Seven were 21 or younger.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
'The trench is dug within our hearts'
The memorial is regularly tended to and visited. Catholic crucifixes are a common sight, with the Irish nationalist cause intertwined with Catholicism.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Walled border city on NI's northwestern tip
Derry's name was officially given the prefix "London" in 1613. Its city council failed in a 2007 court bid to rename it Derry on the maps. Now with a majority republican, Catholic population, Northern Ireland's second-largest city has immense historical significance to both sides. The Battle of Bogside, a 1969 communal riot, is broadly seen as the start of the "Troubles" of the late 20th century.
Image: DW
Derry, Londonderry — a flashpoint for centuries
Free Derry Corner marks the entry to the nationalist, predominantly Catholic part of the city, including Creggan. The entire area is awash with murals, memorials and sometimes less tasteful messages. Derry, Londonderry is now majority nationalist and Catholic. But the 1689 Siege of Derry was also a key event in the revolution that overthrew the last Catholic king of England, James II.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
'Not In Our Name'
In the immediate aftermath of McKee's murder, the entry was repainted in her honor. It has since been restored to usual.
Image: picture-alliance/J. Boland
Other public resistance
Another photo taken in April, soon after McKee's death, when locals were unwilling to let terrorist messages stand. A local primary school is nearby.
Image: Getty Images/AFP/P. Faith
Authorities working overtime
This vacant building on Bogside near the Peace Wall was the proposed site of an unsanctioned protest. Local kids had piled tires high at this site, planning what they were calling the 2019 Bogside Bonfire. After public pressure, and failed attempts by the nationalist Sinn Fein political party to dissuade the children, authorities cleared out the inflammable material on August 1.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Home security
Barbed wire and sharp anti-climbing spikes on gates are not unusual forms of home security in parts of the city. Businesses tend to be especially well-fortified.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Tourist attraction
Visitors can tour the Free Derry area of the city. Local guides take people on foot, while taxi drivers also offer personal tours. There's also a Museum of Free Derry. Many of the walls are adorned with murals, such as this one picturing a home raid by the military.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Brexit a la Bogside
One new placard near Free Derry Corner has a distinct Brexit flavor. "Hard Border, Soft Border, No Border, #IrishUnityNow," it reads. In the background, on the back of a road sign, you can also make out the graffiti "RIRA," short for "Real Irish Republican Army," one of the splinter groups (also known as the New IRA) that rejected the IRA's cease-fire in 1997 ahead of the Good Friday Agreement.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
McKee's love letter to the city
On the other side of town, near the train station, a bright blue poster carries a quote from Lyra McKee. McKee's book, Angels with Blue Faces, was published posthumously this past week. It's the upshot of a five-year investigation by McKee into the IRA's 1981 murders of Ulster Unionist (or British loyalist) MP Robert Bradford and another man, Kenneth Campbell.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Building bridges
Despite the continued troubles in places like Creggan, or the permanent red-white-and-blue (UK flag colors) bunting on show in loyalist parts of town like Bonds Street, much of Derry, Londonderry has been transformed in recent years. One unmissable feature of this, straddling the estuary on which the city was built, is the Peace Bridge. The plaque also notes that it was funded by the EU.
Image: DW/M. Hallam
Peace Flame
Derry's Peace Flame, near the waterfront and the Peace Bridge, was lit by children from both communities in 2013, ahead of a speech by Martin Luther King Jr. Like much of the city center, it symbolizes the progress made — even in Derry, Londonderry — over the past two decades in Northern Ireland. That said, vandals did target it 2016, while in 2017, a technical fault put out the fire.
