This week's news - April 10th
On the most recent anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, the Irish Taoiseach Micheál Martin said that political leaders must not allow Northern Ireland to “spiral back to that dark place of sectarian murders and political discord”, after the region was marred by another night of disorder, and asked for “anyone who has any influence in the communities please use that influence to ensure young people do not get caught up in criminality and that they are kept safe and away from harm tonight”.
Even though
the Good Friday Agreement was signed 23 years ago, violence still happens with
its each anniversary. This shows that that even many years of building trust
and breaking political barriers is not enough to make up for centuries of
division and mistrust. The fact that mostly young people are involved in these
criminal activities isn’t surprising, since most of them don’t remember times
before the Good Friday Agreement, when violence was happening on the streets
every day, and terrorist attacks were a norm. They don’t understand the
importance of keeping balance, unlike the elderly, who don’t want Northern Ireland
to spiral back into violence.
Link: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2021/apr/10/taoiseach-warns-northern-ireland-must-not-spiral-back-to-dark-place
Weren't the riots triggered by the final Brexit arrangements being put in place? Whatever the arrangement about the hard border is, it will anger one or the other side of the conflict. The border is supposed to be in the middle of the Irish Sea, which separates Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK and binds it with the Republic of Ireland. And this rubbed the loyalist protestant circles the wrong way.
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