Irish Prime Minister Taoiseach Micheál Martin called for calm on Saturday after a week of violent riots raged in Belfast, Northern Ireland – while officials sounded the alarm over reports that children as young as 12 years old had taken part in it. .
“We owe it to the ‘generation of agreements’ and indeed future generations not to return to the dark place of sectarian killings and political discord,” Martin said in a statement commemorating the 10-year existence of the Good Friday Agreement, the 1998 agreement brought peace to Northern Ireland after decades of bloody conflict.
But growing frustration over new trade barriers between Northern Ireland and the UK in the aftermath of Brexit began a week of unrest – with violent clashes between nationalists and loyalists that burned cars and buses and injured several police officers.
Meanwhile, Northern Ireland’s Commissioner for Children and Young People, Koulla Yiasouma, said 12- and 13-year-olds had been seen taking part in the riots.
“What we have are criminals who control or force young people to use drugs, to take part in criminal activities, and that I include riots in the streets,” she told The Guardian.
Justice Minister Naomi Long condemned the trend as ‘nothing less than child abuse’.