Seven nights of violence from Loyalist thugs and paramilitaries, many of them children, some as young as twelve if not younger. Vital buses burning on the Shankill, bus services suspended, the peace gates being breached and all leading up to the sixth night of the loyalist rioting. The extent of the PSNI response to the rioting in the past six nights was PSNI officers clad in riot armour and shields with armoured Land Rovers for hard protection. However on that sixth night of loyalist rioting, things changed, loyalists upped the ante and called for a protest on the peace line on Lanark Way, off the Springfield Road. The word ‘protest’ being obvious code for a riot. It fell to nationalists from the Springfield Road to stop loyalist rioters breaching into the area, armed with nothing but stones.
Unionists now need nationalists embroiled in their little war on the NI Protocol because they aren’t getting the attention required to use their riots as leverage. They need to expand their violence to ensure it becomes a ‘Northern Ireland’ issue rather than a unionist issue. Loyalist riots weren’t putting enough pressure on the PSNI or the system and let’s be honest here, they were small riots at best, nothing the PSNI couldn’t deal with, but when both nationalists and loyalists are rioting against each other and the PSNI simultaneously it brings enormous pressure on the PSNI who are now policing both nationalist and unionist rioting.
What we witnessed last night, however, was the very definition of two-tier-policing. Over the past week of loyalist rioting, the bare minimum of riot policing was deployed, yet last night we witnessed water cannon and K9 units being deployed against nationalists. Over 6 nights of loyalist rioting there were 55 PSNI officers injured. Injured by loyalist violence, and still the bare minimum of riot policing was applied, night after night. Yet, on the first instance of nationalist violence, almost the entire arsenal of PSNI riot control was applied. Logically one must look at why this was the case. One thought that must logically come to mind, when we look at unionism’s faux outrage at the Bobby Storey funeral and its accusations of two-tier-policing, is this operation was put in place to appease unionism, to show that nationalists are not treated differently to Unionists, against their assertions that nationalists and republicans are afforded special treatment from the PSNI. However, what they have actually done is show nationalists what they knew all along, that physical policing toward nationalists is indeed two tier.
What we have yet to see however, is the Loyalist Communities Council come out and condemn the loyalist violence. When it comes to the LCC, one can only look back with suspicion at that interview with David Campbell, the Chairman of the LCC on the Nolan Show when he called for a political solution to the NI Protocol but said loyalists would be prepared to “physically fight to maintain their freedoms within the United Kingdom”. Everyone who has lived in the North of Ireland knew that was a veiled threat, even Stephen Nolan knew it was a veiled threat and pushed Campbell to clarify his stance on the matter which he somewhat skirted around more than once. Even the South Belfast UPRG came out as the first loyalist group to call for an end to loyalist unrest but this came only after loyalists had sucked nationalists into their personal war on the NI Protocol.
There was a very blatant and telling reduction in the violence on the Shankill Road last night, one could even call it a lull. After such vicious violence for six days, peaking on Wednesday night on Lanark Way, has unionism achieved what they set out to do after realising their own rioting was having little to no effect on their cause to have the NI Protocol binned? That being, dragging nationalists into their war on the NI Protocol? If so, nationalists rioters have fallen for it hook, line and sinker. Unionists and loyalists have made nationalists the pressure point, they are quite literally using nationalists as leverage to have the NI Protocol removed by making it a ‘Northern Irish’ issue in general, rather than a unionist issue.
On a personal note. I would like to thank Sinn Fein and Community Activists for calming the situation initially. They cleared the Springfield Road when youths placed a burning barricade across it and stood square between them and the peace line on Lanark Way while having stones, bottles, insults and jeers thrown at them. Those people who stood their ground in an attempt to maintain peace are the true heroes of the Springfield Road community. They understand what Unionism is trying to do and those who continue to riot are letting their entire community down and giving unionism exactly what it wants – a way to take the heat off themselves and put it and the eyes of the media back onto nationalism.
“Move not unless you see an advantage; use not your troops until there is something to be gained; fight not unless the position is critical” – Sun Tzu
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