30.1 C
New Delhi

Riots in Belfast, is Great Britain on the verge of divide?

Date:

Share post:

There was yet more violence in Northern Ireland last night, with police attacked again. Water cannons were used in the province for the first time in six years to try and disperse the rioters, who appeared to come from both republican and unionist areas.

Northern Ireland’s population is divided between mostly – Protestant Unionists, who want to maintain Northern Ireland’s status as part of the United Kingdom, and mostly – Catholic Nationalists, who want political unity with the Republic of Ireland.



Now, more than two decades after the Good Friday Agreement peace deal brought the years of sectarian “Troubles” in the Northern Ireland to an end, new tensions arising from Brexit, organised crime and political patronage are stoking old rivalries and anxieties.

While the causes for the violence are multifaceted, observers say it is underpinned by a sense of frustration in the Unionist community. “There has been this brewing fear on the Unionist side that they are not as British as people in Birmingham,” says Feargal Cochrane, author of Northern Ireland: The Fragile Peace. “A fear that there are different rules applying to them.”

Brandon Lewis, the Northern Ireland Secretary, will continue talks with local political, community and faith leaders to try and calm things down. Meanwhile, a row is developing over exactly what is to blame.

The spark was supposedly the decision not to charge prominent republicans for attending a huge public funeral for a former IRA member during lockdown last year. Tensions over the new Irish Sea border after Brexit have been suggested as another factor. And, as Lord Caine, a former top adviser to the Government on Northern Ireland, argued in an interview, there is the recent crackdown on criminal elements on both sides.

Of course, singling out or dismissing any one of those causes is rather silly and betrays a failure to understand how mainstream politics, sectarianism and criminality interact in Northern Ireland. What is certain is that this is a rather rude awakening for those on all sides of British politics who see Northern Ireland as a mere bargaining tool in UK-EU relations.

Many still believe, one of great follies of 21st century was the Brexit and entire Great Britain has yet to rise and shine after the narrow referendum, which was supposed to be the fallout of the Cambridge Analytica fiasco.

Rajiv Saxena
Rajiv Saxena
Rajiv Prakash Saxena is a graduate of UBC, Vancouver, Canada. He is an authority on eCommerce, eProcurement, eSign, DSCs and Internet Security. He has been a Technology Bureaucrat and Thought leader in the Government. He has 8 books and few UN assignments. He wrote IT Policies of Colombia and has implemented projects in Jordan, Rwanda, Nepal and Mauritius. Rajiv writes, speaks, mentors on technology issues in Express Computers, ET, National frontier and TV debates. He worked and guided the following divisions: Computer Aided Design (CAD), UP: MP: Maharashtra and Haryana State Coordinator to setup NICNET in their respective Districts of the State, TradeNIC, wherein a CD containing list of 1,00,000 exporters was cut with a search engine and distributed to all Indian Embassies and High Commissions way back in the year 1997 (It was an initiative between NIC and MEA Trade Division headed by Ms. Sujatha Singh, IFS, India’s Ex Foreign Secretary), Law Commission, Ministry of Law & Justice, Department of Legal Affairs, Department of Justice, Ministry of Urban Development (MoUD), Ministry of Housing & Urban Poverty Alleviation (MoHUPA), National Jail Project, National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), National Commission for Minorities (NCM), National Data Centres (NDC), NIC National Infrastructure, Certifying Authority (CA) to issue Digital Signature Certificates (DSCs), eProcurement, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs (MPA), Lok Sabha and its Secretariat (LSS) and Rajya Sabha and its Secretariat (RSS) along with their subordinate and attached offices like Directorate of Estate (DoE), Land & Development Office (L&DO), National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC), Central Public Works Department (CPWD), National Capital Regional Planning Board (NCRPB), Housing & Urban Development Corporation (HUDO), National Building Organisation (NBO), Delhi Development Authority (DDA), BMPTC and many others.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Related articles

Eatery Owners Name Display Rule – Congress Govt in Himachal Pradesh Adopts “Pseudo Secularism” cum “Radical Islamism” to ignore Hindu sentiment

The Congress Government in Himachal Pradesh on Wednesday made announcement to make mandatory for the food vendors and...

‘Modi, Hindus Go Back’: BAPS Mandir defaced with anti-Hindu graffiti in US

The BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir in California was on Wednesday desecrated with anti-Hindu messages, the second such incident...

Before Biden-Modi talks, US officials meet pro-Khalistani Elements, Is USA trying to provoke India?

A day before President Joe Biden hosted Prime Minister Narendra Modi in his hometown in Delaware, the officials...

How Israel orchestrated one of the BIGGEST Psychological Warfare against Terror Org Hezbollah?

At least 32 people, including two children, were killed and thousands more injured, many seriously, after communication devices,...