The British territory of Northern Ireland, which contributed to the world’s sectarian flares, roared in the news again, its relative calm being pierced by violent riots among groups that made peace 23 years ago.
The reasons for the collapse are intertwined with Britain’s exit from the European Union and the tension of the Covid – 19 pandemic. But they showed the flammable strength of the old feud between a largely Catholic side that wants the area to be part of Ireland, and a mostly Protestant side that wants to remain part of Britain.
For more than a week, protests descended into chaos in the streets of Belfast, the capital and some other parts of Northern Ireland, leaving numerous police officers wounded. Rioters just 13 years old threw petrol bombs at police and set buses on fire. Prime Minister Boris Johnson of Britain and his Irish counterpart Micheal Martin have both expressed deep concern.
“Boris Johnson is grappling with a problem that is too close to home for convenience: the worst violence in the streets of Northern Ireland for many years,” said Mujtaba Rahman, Europe’s managing director for the Eurasia Group, a political risk consultant , in an email to customers. The underlying causes, Mr. Rahman said, “was probably not resolved quickly.”
Here’s a look at Northern Ireland and the issues behind the violent turnaround.
What area does Northern Ireland cover?
Northern Ireland is an area of 5,400 square kilometers of approximately two million people under British sovereignty in the northeastern part of the island of Ireland, bordered to the south and west by the Republic of Ireland and to the east by the Irish Sea, which separates it from the rest of Britain.
Why is it separate from Ireland?
Ireland became self-governing almost 100 years ago after centuries of British rule. But the treaty that established self-government for most of the island, after several years of fierce struggle in the aftermath of World War I, also contains an opt-out for the area with the largest concentration of Protestants, who leaders’ prospects of becoming part of a Catholic majority state. This northern area remained part of Britain, with a police force and a local government dominated by Protestants for decades.
Why is this important?
The division of Ireland became the source of one of the 20th century’s most violent and persistent sectarian conflicts, involving Catholics and groups opposed to the British government, including the paramilitary Irish Republican Army, against Protestants and pro-British forces, including loyalist militants. groups, expressed. Belfast, a former epicenter of shipbuilding and birthplace of the Titanic, became one of the ‘four B’s’ – joining forces with Beirut, Baghdad and Bosnia in the pantheon of the world’s most dangerous places. About 3,600 people die in decades of strife in Northern Ireland, known as ‘The Troubles’.
An agreement known as the Belfast Agreement, also known as the Good Friday Agreement, or simply the agreement, was reached on 10 April 1998 by the British Government, the Irish Government and political parties in Northern Ireland. It created a government meeting for the area designed to ensure power sharing between Protestants and Catholics, and bodies to facilitate co-operation between Northern Ireland and Ireland. It has committed former adversaries to peacefully disarm and settle their disputes. It also allowed residents of Northern Ireland to obtain Irish citizenship or dual Irish-British citizenship.
Years of relative peace followed. Northern Ireland, once considered a no-go area for tourists, has become a draw. The appeal was further enhanced by the creators of ‘Game of Thrones’, the HBO series, which used the beautiful and diverse landscapes as a stage. The debut in April 2011 ‘put Northern Ireland on the map’, said The Derry Journal, a newspaper in Northern Ireland’s second largest city.
Why is violence increasing?
Britain’s exit from the European Union, known as Brexit, disturbed the political balance in Northern Ireland and threatened the underpinning of the Good Friday Agreement.
Ireland remains a member of the European Union, and Brexit has raised the prospect of new checks at its previously unlimited land border with Northern Ireland, hampering the free flow of people and goods and angering those who want to unite the island.
But solutions to keep the border open have created new problems in trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of Britain, disrupting supplies to shops in the area and upsetting those in Northern Ireland who consider themselves British. Resentment in pro-British Protestant areas increased and contributed to the most recent outbreaks of violence, raising fears of retaliation from Catholic communities.
A further source of tension was a recent police decision not to prosecute the crowd of mourners who gathered at a funeral last June for Bobby Storey, a commander of the Irish Republican Army, despite a ban on mass gatherings due to the pandemic. Among the mourners were leaders of Sein Fein, a political party with ties to the IRA that became the leading party among Northern Ireland’s Catholics.
Although there is no expectation that violence will rise to the levels seen during the years of The Troubles, when British forces were deployed to Northern Ireland, leaders on all sides are afraid of launching a revenge attack.
Northern Ireland’s plight has now become a particularly delicate matter for the Johnson government. He does not want to lose support from Protestants in Northern Ireland who say they feel betrayed and acquitted. And any deepening of the divisions between Northern Ireland and Ireland could boost support for Irish unification, which according to some polls has already risen since Brexit.
For now, political leaders on all sides stress the need to honor the 1998 Belfast Agreement, reminding the young people of Northern Ireland how it is changing their lives. Mr. Martin, the Prime Minister of Ireland, said this on Saturday, commemorating the agreement: ‘We owe it to the generation of the agreement and indeed to future generations not to return to the dark place of sectarian killings. and political disagreement. ”