Posted by Jim on January 19, 2013
The Short Strand, a small working class nationalist/republican enclave of less than 3,000 men, women and children, has come under a renewed siege in the past week by violent loyalists.
The scenes have recalled some of the worst days of the conflict and have brought an international focus on recent events in east Belfast.
Although situated on the east bank of the River Lagan and completely dwarfed by its 60,000 strong unionist neighbours, who surround it on the other three sides, unionists and loyalists have always attempted to portray the minority community as the aggressors.
For a brief period on Saturday, there was hand-to-hand fighting as nationalist residents and home-owners bravely defended their district following a loyalist ‘protest’.
Rumours of ‘one last big riot’ planned by the unionist paramilitary UVF were borne out last Saturday, when elements of the PSNI appeared to be acting in support of a malign agenda. By mysteriously blocking the usual return route by protestors from the city centre, riot-ready loyalist youths were encouraged to return to east Belfast via the overwhelmingly nationalist Albertbridge Road, where trouble was guaranteed.
On Sunday, debris was still visible as Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams walked around the Short Strand and spoke with residents whose homes were damaged.
He pointed out that it was the 15th time that an illegal loyalist procession had passed the neighbourhood since the flag protests began.
He warned that someone could be killed if loyalist protests continued, and accused the PSNI of “facilitating” the illegal loyalist protests.
“The people of the Short Strand were let down by the PSNI and let’s be very clear about this, the people in the Short Strand would not have an awful lot of confidence in the PSNI to start with,” he said.
Despite his concerns, there were subsequent attacks on both Monday and Tuesday, with little protection from the PSNI.
A Catholic pensioner whose house was attacked by petrol-bombers has told how he fought the flames with a garden hose as bottles and paint bombs rained down.
Tommy McNulty’s Strand Walk home, which he shares with his 80-year-old wife Kathleen, was caught in a hail of petrol bombs, causing scorch damage and setting fire to the roof of a garden shed.
The retired dockworker said at least four or five petrol bombs had landed in the back garden of his two-storey home, near the loyalist Newtownards Road.
Bricks, broken bottles and paint bombs pelted his home and neighbouring homes.
Mr McNulty, who is forced to keep fire extinguishers in the garden in case of attack, used a garden hose to fight the flames on Monday night.
“We were sitting in the house and we heard the crash of the bottles and then we heard the war cry,” he said.
“We were attacked last Monday, Thursday and Friday by paint bombs and bottles as well as the latest incident.
“We were lucky last night was cold and damp which helped put the petrol bombs out and I was out with the hose as well while there was still stuff coming down.
“When something like that happens it is scary, especially when you are pensioners.
“When you see something like that you do panic.”
And on Tuesday, under cover of dark and away from the cameras, a masked loyalist mob attacked children and adults with Special Needs at St Matthew’s, the local parish church.
As petrol bombs, paint bombs and other missiles were landing within feet, the group was led away from St Matthew’s church by courageous workers.
Uneaten toast and tea abandoned by the children as they fled were still visible in the parochial hall the following morning.
Pilib O Ruanai said his Down’s Syndrome daughter and the others attending the Special Needs club had been badly distressed by the terrifying situation.
It was “a wee haven for them, some-where to go and meet their peers and it gives parents a bit of a break,” he said.
Parochial hall worker William Ward said when he arrived, over 100 loyalists were involved in the attack.
“We made a judgment it was time for the people to be taken away,” he said. “They were frightened and knew something was wrong and we tried not to exaggerate what was happening. They were just sitting there eating their tea and toast and then people came in to take them away.
“It upset them and frightened them and it frightened a lot of adults there as well.”
Des Dalton of Republican Sinn Fein said the continuing loyalist sectarian attacks on the people of the Short Strand illustrates the “unchanging reality” of life for large sections of the nationalist community in Belfast and throughout occupied Six Counties.
“Once again it is the nationalist people who must bear the brunt of loyalist mobs who have unleashed havoc in order to further the political agenda of the unionist political establishment.”
He said that the unionist establishment traditionally used armed loyalism “as a weapon in its arsenal”.
“The events in Belfast and other areas of the Six Counties over the past number of weeks underline the abnormality of the Six-County state. As Republican Sinn Fein warned in 1998, the Stormont Agreement has simply reinforced and institutionalised sectarianism in the Six Counties.
“Over the past 15 years it has served only to deepen the sectarian divide, thus condemning the people of the Six Counties to an ongoing cycle of sectarian conflict.
“This cycle of sectarianism can only be broken by the dismantling of the two partitionist states and the creation of a New Ireland.”
Posted by Jim on January 13, 2013
.Northern Ireland’s First Minister Peter Robinson has urged loyalists to back the Good Friday agreement after another night of violence in East Belfast.
Flag protest riots left 29 police officers injured as Robinson appealed for calm.
First Minister Robinson has warned that the present unrest is costing the North’s economy millions of dollars and seriously damaging the tourism industry.
He has also stated that the only way to end violence in Northern Ireland is through the political process.
Robinson condemned those responsible for injuring dozens of police officers but claimed the protesters have become alienated.
Speaking to the BBC, Stormont leader Robinson said: “There are political issues and people that feel disengaged and people that feel if we are trying to build a shared future they are not getting their share.
“We took some difficult decisions, some might say historic decisions to build a shared society in Northern Ireland.
“I think it is important to tell the wider community in Northern Ireland and our friends in the rest of the United Kingdom that we are not giving up on that.
“We are very much of the view that we are determined that we build the kind of society where everybody can have a peaceful and stable existence.”
Robinson and Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness are due to meet with the British and Irish governments this week.
He added: “We will make it very clear to both governments the condemnation that exists in the wider Northern Ireland community for the violence.”
Northern Ireland police chief Matt Baggott has praised the courage of his officers injured in another night of violence as riots broke out in east Belfast between republicans and loyalists returning from a protest at Belfast City Hall.
Chief constable Baggott said: “This was a difficult operation dealing with a large number of people determined to cause disorder and violence.
“My colleagues brought the situation under control with exceptional courage and professionalism.
“The vast majority of people are grateful for their efforts as fireworks, bricks and other missiles rained down on officers on duty last night.”
A spokesman for one of the groups behind the protests has said people should avoid demonstrations, if they need to visit places like hospitals.
His statement follows an incident in Rathcoole when a pensioner was blocked from getting to a hospital to visit his seriously ill wife.
Wayne Gilmore from the United Protestant Voice said: “Disruption is inevitable during the street protests and people should bear this in mind.”
Posted by Jim on January 12, 2013
A flags protest at Belfast City Hall swiftly degenerated into violence
this afternoon after a unionist mob charged towards a nationalist
enclave in east Belfast, attacking homes and launching into hours of
intense riots.
PSNI police chiefs were accused of facilitating illegal parades both
before and after the ‘peaceful’ City Hall protest, where hundreds of
flag-waving loyalists gathered to demand the year-round flying of the
British Union flag.
Following the end of the protest at about 2.30pm, masked loyalists were
directed by PSNI landrovers towards the nationalist Short Strand, where
they duly began attacking homes and smashing windows. They then
launched into a furious daytime riot in front of the world’s assembled
media.
Local Sinn Fein Councillor Niall O Donnaghaile said tensions had been
running high among residents after five weeks of loyalist disturbances
in the area.
“What has been allowed to happen here is an absolute disgrace and now
we as a community have to deal with the fall out of illegal protests,
anti-democratic protests and people who simply cannot tolerate the fact
that the Short Strand as a community exists.”
Both loyalist and nationalist community workers expressed dismay at the
PSNI decision to block the Queen’s Bridge, all but ensuring violence
further south.
Mr O Donnghaile said a number of homes had been “seriously damaged”
along the Albertbridge Road as a result of the decision to permit the
illegal loyalist parade through the area.
The latest chapter of violence has also infuriated city centre
businesses who lost another day’s trade. It followed heavy clashes in
the same area last night and six consecutive days of riots last week.
Senior politicians from Belfast, Dublin and London are to meet next
week to discuss the protests. The DUP First Minister Peter Robinson and
the Sinn Fein deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness will hold the
talks with the British Direct Ruler Theresa Villiers and 26 County
Tanaiste Eamonn Gilmore.
Speaking earlier today, Mr Gilmore said: “This violence is being
orchestrated and those behind it are known criminals, intent on
creating chaos.
“This has nothing to do with real issues around flags and identity in a
shared society, which are the subject of intensive political
discussions at present.”
The PSNI said five of its members had been injured in the latest
outbreak of violence, and that two further plastic bullets were fired.
Tensions remain high in east Belfast and the Beersbridge Road area this
evening.
Posted by Jim on
Plastic bullets were fired and water cannons were used as rioting
erupted early this evening at loyalist flags protests.
The riots continued for several hours in Newtownabbey, outside Belfast,
and in Carrickfergus, County Antrim.
A large number of road blockings took place throughout the Six Counties
on Friday evening, causing major road disruption across the region.
In one incident, an elderly man was jeered by protestors in north
Belfast after they refused to allow him access to visit his dying wife.
The number of protestors was smaller than previous incidents before
Christmas, although the level of violence and determination of the
rioters appeared undiminished.
Some of the worst trouble was in Newtownabbey, where petrol bombs,
fireworks and other missiles were thrown at PSNI police, and a bus was
set on fire earlier.
In Carrickfergus, one PSNI man was injured by a mob throwing petrol
bombs, masonry and other missiles.
Thirty-three petrol bombs were thrown in total. The PSNI said they
fired five plastic bullets in return.
The rallies, dubbed by organisers as ‘Operation Standstill’, formed
part of a continuing loyalist campaign against the decision to restrict
the flying of the Union Jack Flag from Belfast City Hall.
Roads were blocked throughout County Antrim and County Down, including
in Bangor, Newtownards, Castlereagh, Clough, Clonduff, Dundonald,
Finaghy, and all across Belfast.
A ‘surprise’ protest planned for outside Leinster House in Dublin
tonight was postponed, but a further rally is planned for Belfast City
Hall on Saturday afternoon.
Posted by admin on January 8, 2013
Sinn Fein’s Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness has been awarded an
English aristocratic title in order to secure his resignation as an MP,
it has been confirmed.
His long-signalled resignation is part of a policy by Sinn Fein to end
‘double jobbing’. It followed the same arcane procedure required by the
London Parliament, which previously imposed an equally controversial
‘royal title’ on Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams.
Like all other Sinn Fein MPs, Mr McGuinness has never taken his seat in
Westminster. Despite this, he was accorded the royal appointment of the
‘Steward and Bailiff of the Manor of Northstead’, as part of the
eclectic resignation process required by Britain’s parliamentary
by-laws.
“Martin McGuinness resigned the same way as Gerry Adams in 2011,” a
spokesman for Sinn Fein confirmed.
“As Irish republicans we gave no time for antiquated and ridiculous
titles of the British parliamentary system then and this remains the
situation.
“What we need to see now is the writ being moved for a by-election to
allow the people of Mid-Ulster to have their say.”
Mr McGuinness was elected as MP for Mid-Ulster in 1997. He said his
decision to stand down was in line with Sinn Fein’s commitment to end
double-jobbing and he planned to concentrate on his role as a Stormont
assembly member and deputy first minister.
Francie Molloy, will seek to hold Sinn Fein’s Mid-Ulster seat in the
forthcoming by-election.
He was selected as his party’s candidate to contest the seat last month
at a convention in Gulladuff, County Derry, in December.
A former director of elections for Bobby Sands, he was also involved in
the civil rights movement.
In 2005, he was briefly suspended from Sinn Fein for saying he wanted
the number of councils to be cut to 15, rather than seven – the party’s
preferred number.
Mr Molloy, who will be defending a sizable Sinn Fein majority in the
strongly natonalist onstituency, said he was delighted to be selected.
“The party has been represented by Martin McGuinness since 1997 and
although he will be a hard act to follow if elected I will endeavour to
serve the people of Mid Ulster with the same determination and fortitude
in improving the lives of all the citizens of the area,” he said.
Speaking after Mr Molloy’s selection, Mr McGuinness said: “Francie will
make an exceptional MP and representative for the people of Mid Ulster.”