As the US Secretary for State Hillary Clinton travels to Northern Ireland on Friday, Northern Ireland First Minister Peter Robinson called on protesters for calm. Loyalist protesters' demonstrations over the lowering of the Union flag over Belfast City Hall turned violent earlier this week.
Anti-sectarian Alliance members of the regional assembly at Stormont and Westminster have been targeted at their homes and offices by arsonists, vandals, and pickets. These attacks follow the decision to reduce the number of days the union flag would be flown above city hall.
On Monday night protests outside the council meeting turned ugly. Golf balls, bottles, and crush fencing were thrown at police officers.
Protesters plan another mass demonstration on Saturday, one of the busiest shopping days of the year, and there are fears that there will be a risk of violence in the city center.
Will Kerr, Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) assistant chief constable told BreakingNews.ie “To encourage thousands of people to come to Belfast city centre on one of the busiest days of the year would be madness.”
Read more: Loyalist protest turns violent as Belfast lowers Union Jack- VIDEO
Robinson said, “My advice is that street protests should be suspended by those responsible for organizing them in the wider interests of a peaceful society and to ensure their protests are not used by others to launch a campaign of violence.
“Britishness will not be progressed by acts of violence. Anyone engaging in wanton violence or intimidation does not defend our national flag but disgraces it.”
On Wednesday night unrest spread to other area in Northern Ireland. In Carrickfergus, County Antrim, 1,000 rioters burned down the office of Alliance MLA Stewart Dickson. Four police officers were injured.
In Bangor, County Down, arsonists attempted to set fire to the office of Stormont Employment and Learning Minister Stephen Farry. Also the windows at the home of two Alliance councillors with a 17-month old baby were damaged.
Chief Constable Matt Baggott warned politicians not to engage in dogma over flag issues, making matters worse. He pointed to the tolerance of Queen Elizabeth and met with Robinson to ask him to help cool tensions.
Read more: Protests over Union Jack in Belfast play out like a movie with too many sequels – VIDEO
He said, “Loyalism can never be an excuse to compromise democracy, to use mob rule and violence as a way of asserting people’s will and compromising the rule of law, and I call upon people to take a step back. There is far too much at stake for the future and for the here and now.”
Sinn Fein Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness said, “This is an attack on the democratic decision taken in Belfast City Hall by those who are democratically elected to represent the people of this city.”
Ireland’s deputy prime minister, Tanaiste Eamon Gilmore, said this violence should stop. He said, “Such violent attacks on a democratic party are an attack on democracy itself. They are reprehensible and have no place in a civilized society.”
Here’s raw footage posted online on Wednesday
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.seamus60 | Dec 10, 2012, 01:07 PM EST
Sori. my last post should have read Impression and not expression.
seamus60 | Dec 10, 2012, 01:05 PM EST
Anglo it has very little to do with flags. Loyalists are intent on pushing the expression of their identity being chipped away. The laughable reality being their union is more secure now than it has ever been. The loyalist paramillitaries were too lazy when it came to presenting themselves in the same light as so called republicans in order to avail of the endless pit of money that is afforded to the peace process. Catch up is a hard game.
anglo-norman | Dec 08, 2012, 06:15 PM EST
This flag thing vote was democratic and must be maintained!! Democracy must always be defended regardless of any decision!!
seamus60 | Dec 08, 2012, 12:34 PM EST
Citizen69. Don`t remember any Catholic protesters getting seriously injured of killed via water cannon.
WoundedKnee | Dec 08, 2012, 07:41 AM EST
A bit ironic that only a while back some tourist outfit in the South demanded that the Union Jack be flown more, so as to make English tourists feel at home. It didn't occur to these fools that if you want to feel "at home" you don't take a vacation, you stay "at home".
citizen69 | Dec 08, 2012, 05:35 AM EST
As a working class Unionist from Belfast I want to express how embarrassed i am by the behaviour of these thugs. Protest? yes, that's totally acceptable but the violence and intimidation is pathetic. I watched on the news as idiots & thugs who claim they want respect to be shown to their flag then proceeded to use flag poles with the union flag attached as weapons against the police! Streets littered with torn Union flags, where is the respect in that? It's mob mentality easily led by scare mongers and hardline Loyalists. If they have no respect for law & Order, the police or their flag then they are no different than militant dissident Republicans to me. I live among working class loyalists and i know the depth of feeling about this as they feel their identity is being strip one step at a time, piece by piece... but there is NO justification for this disgraceful behaviour. The Alliance party which is bearing the brunt of the attack are themselves a unionist party (with a small 'u'). They have the right to make democratic decisions free from mob intimidation. BTW water cannons were used in three separate locations despite the propaganda rantings of curtisjohnson whom i don't think has even ever set foot in Northern Ireland.
curtisjohnson | Dec 08, 2012, 12:06 AM EST
"Where are the arrests,the water cannons and the rubber bullets?Or are they just reserved for nationalists" The contrast between how the PSNI/RUC reacts to mostly peaceful indigenous protest compared to these blatant acts of thuggery and terrorism tells you all you need to know about the equal protection of law in the british terror state.
curtisjohnson | Dec 08, 2012, 12:03 AM EST
"Democracy must be maintained." It probably should be instituted first.
seamus60 | Dec 07, 2012, 06:51 PM EST
Anglo-norman. What democrecy ?
seanomelb | Dec 07, 2012, 06:50 PM EST
I'm glad you scuppered off to England to be with your BNP bullyboy friends. The celts will do very well without interfering messmakers like the English establishment. Tiochfaidh an la
anglo-norman | Dec 07, 2012, 06:19 PM EST
Democracy must be maintained.
FallsRNat | Dec 07, 2012, 04:57 PM EST
Its so nice to live in England away from the bigots on the island of ireland, rioting due to flags taken down, parks named in honour of a provie, i can't wait for Scotland to go independent, we can get rid of Ulster at the same time & EU membership, the Celts can do what they like & importantly I won't be paying for it, maybe you'll like to take up the slack seano.
seanomelb | Dec 07, 2012, 04:31 PM EST
Where are the arrests,the water cannons and the rubber bullets?Or are they just reserved for nationalists. There's an RUC badge behind every PSNI badge.
Happyhippo | Dec 07, 2012, 03:19 PM EST
Its ironic that a decision by democratic vote was passed by two thirds majority to fly the Union Jack on specified days only instead of the 365 days a year since partition,that caused a riot by people who never stop shouting about democracy,they think the plantation of Ulster by the British gave them a veto over everything that don't suit them,even Irish history wasn't taught in Northern schools until recently,they have the brass neck to call the native Ulster born Irish,foreigners in their own land,no wonder they resort to violence at the drop of a hat,its in the DNA.
pilib04 | Dec 07, 2012, 01:35 PM EST
Actually I was quite surprised/happy that Sinn Fein compromised their original position (2 flags, new flag or no flag)by accepting the Alliance offer.
pilib04 | Dec 07, 2012, 01:27 PM EST
They aren't even the majority in Belfast, yet the Loyalist gangsters are able to threaten and intimidate anyone who gets in the way of their agenda. This is the mob that the DUP stirred up with their two weeks of leafleting (according to NI Justice Minister David Forde). Then you have the DUP Health Minister Edwin Poots saying that the Council should do a do-over and give into mob rule on the Flag issue. Poots blamed the rioting and the attacks on the police and Alliance offices, on the democratic vote and not on his Loyalist thugs.
cillowen | Dec 07, 2012, 01:12 PM EST
Why they crave being with the number one Empire trafficking in humans - their charlie chaplin Israeli costumes must be the reason.
moorehall | Dec 07, 2012, 09:43 AM EST
Seanmor I totally agree with your comment....back to Scotland they should all go!
Seanmor | Dec 07, 2012, 09:34 AM EST
Those staunch Loyalists who love the Union Jack and all things British and are unwilling to compromise in the least to promote peace and harmony should simply leave Ireland and move to Britain, where their true Britishness could be fully realized.