After the passing of Prince Philip, Civic Unionism called for a halt to all protests as a mark of respect. They later called for the resumption of ‘protests’ after a period of mourning…fair enough I suppose. I’m no Unionist, however, I do understand when a community feels they have to mourn the passing of someone they feel is important to them. It would be the height of disrespect to our Unionist countrymen to deny them that necessity, even though I’d bet on the fact many of them have never met the Duke of Edinburgh or so much as clapped eyes on him. We demanded it when Martin McGuinness passed away, it’s the least we can do I suppose. However, I still don’t understand how “Northern Ireland is in mourning” when not every person in the North is British, never mind look up to or support the monarchy.
Many heeded the calls for calm and an end to the ‘protests’, and ‘fair-play’ to them for that, it was a welcome respite for many communities. It seems many nationalists even respected the calls for calm though not all as New Lodge showed, though reports suggest those involved in the rioting at New Lodge weren’t actually from New Lodge but from outside the area. However, there were a few so-called ‘Unionists’ who didn’t respect the calls for calm and a cessation of the ‘protests’ and violence, which are one and the same at this point, as we have witnessed over the previous nights. One such place was Tigers Bay in North Belfast, with Coleraine being another. Tigers Bay is what could be described as a staunchly Loyalist area, renowned even within the Loyalist community as a stronghold of Loyalism and dare I say, by extension, Unionism. Yet last night they rioted, I saw it for myself, and standing watching youths throwing stones, bottles, kerb stones and eventually petrol bombs were a bunch, or dare I say ‘gang’ of grown men and women with their faces in full view, and they didn’t so much as lift a finger to stop the violence. Men and women who call themselves ‘British subjects’, people who claim they are loyal to the monarchy and the crown and yet with the calls for respectful calm and mourning due to the death of a member of the monarch, they took to the streets to support and indeed incite rioting.
So that ultimately begs the question – who are these people loyal to, or what? The Loyalist rioting was most intense outside the Mount Bar in Tigers Bay, a bar embroiled in drugs wars, with the Shankill Road’s West Belfast UDA taking over the drugs trade in the area in 2019. The bar itself, closed at the moment due to Covid regulations, was a base hub for the UDA and hosted numerous meetings of the paramilitary group’s high command. So, the logical next questions are – are these rioters and their supporters loyal to the drug kingpins instead, who logically are the paramilitaries? Do they even see themselves as British? and is there any regard for their deceased Prince and the calls for calm? Their actions would dictate the answer is NO. However, the Loyalist Communities Council claimed that none of its groups were involved in rioting “either directly or indirectly” which to be fair, no one really believes except the PSNI apparently. However, it should be pointed out the LCC only released this statement after the PSNI declared as much.
What we didn’t see last night was water cannon and baton rounds being deployed in the loyalist areas, though K9 units were deployed for about ten minutes in Tigers Bay during which one of the police dogs actually bit its own handler on the leg, refusing to release its grip until its ‘toy’ was produced from the dog handler’s pocket. Water cannons were first used on the Springfield Road on Thursday night, for the first time in six years, when youths from the Springfield Road attacked the PSNI, though many have claimed the overreaction of the PSNI and the mere presence of the water cannons were just as much to blame for the violence as the rioters themselves.
There is still a stench of two-tier-policing in all of this. In Tigers Bay a car was hijacked in Canning Street, just meters from, and in plain sight of the PSNI and set alight. It was then rammed into the police lines, yet no water cannons were deployed, not a single baton round was fired at any of the rioters, even after petrol bombs were thrown at police lines. A massive contrast to how the PSNI dealt with ‘nationalist’ rioters on the Springfield Road.
It is worth pointing out that it is “not approved” for police to use water cannon, and is illegal for police to use baton rounds anywhere else on these islands…except the North of Ireland, and even with that said, they only seem to be used on nationalists here recently.
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