12th July, 2018
Photo by max nash
Police have blamed an illegal paramilitary group for encouraging overnight violence in Belfast and other areas of Northern Ireland, ahead of Thursday’s 328th anniversary of a Protestant military victory over Catholics.
According to police and media reports, masked men seized a public bus and set it on fire in Newtownards, a town 20 kilometres east of Belfast, while no less than 12 other vehicles were set alight in eastern Belfast.
Police Service Northern Ireland said it believed that the Loyalist Ulster Volunteer Force had planned to “orchestrate and participate in serious disorder” against its officers in eastern Belfast.
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement put an end to decades of sectarian conflict in Northern Ireland but tensions persist between the Protestant and Catholic communities.
Violence usually escalates before the annual Orange parade season, when Protestant Loyalist groups mark the anniversary of Protestant King William of Orange’s victory over Catholic King James II in 1690 at the Battle of the Boyne.
Bonfires are traditionally lit in many Protestant areas of Northern Ireland on the eve of the July 12 anniversary.
In Derry, the territory’s second most important city, petrol bombs were thrown at the police for a fifth night on Wednesday as they attempted to prevent youths from a predominantly Catholic area from attacking a neighbouring Protestant-majority estate.
“I hope everyone enjoys a family day out at their parades on Thursday.
“I condemn all attacks on our emergency services,’’ Arlene Foster, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, which draws most of its support from Protestants, said on Twitter.