Riots in Northern Ireland – Molotov cocktails on police car

Riots broke out shortly before US President Joe Biden visited Northern Ireland. Participants in an unannounced march in the city of Londonderry, known simply as Derry by the Catholic Republican segment of the population, attacked a police car on Monday.

Molotov cocktails were thrown at a van, police said. The car was on fire. According to initial information, no one was injured. Biden is expected in the capital Belfast on Tuesday evening.

Northern Ireland commemorates exactly 25 years ago on Monday the end of the civil war. The Good Friday Agreement of April 10, 1998 effectively ended the decades-long conflict. The so-called Derry 1916 Commemoration Committee – a republican splinter group – had called for the march. The 25th anniversary of the accord fell on Easter Monday, a traditional day of protest for the Republican camp anyway – referring to the 1916 Easter Rising, which Republicans used to force Ireland’s independence from Britain.

In recent days, the police have already warned of attacks on police officers on Easter Monday. Even though there is now peace, the two dominant camps still live largely apart from each other. There is always tension. In the civil war, mainly Catholic supporters of a union between the two parts of Ireland and predominantly Protestant supporters of the union with Great Britain fought each other. About 3700 people lost their lives. More than 47,000 were injured.

All major parties in Northern Ireland – the republican Sinn Fein, the unionist DUP and the moderate Alliance Party – condemned the riots. The police spoke of a “senseless and reckless attack”. There is no place for such crime. “She is not wanted by the majority of the people in the city.”

Biden is expected in Belfast in the evening to pay tribute to the peace deal and the progress made since then. The iUS president wants to visit several places in Ireland where ancestors lived. The White House intends to continue to adhere to these travel plans. Biden is very happy, says a government spokesman. (sda/dpa)