Media reports on the current crisis by Liam Clarke and Andrew Gilligan, including comments from the Chief Constable, Paul Bew and Mike Nesbitt.
Kids are enjoying the riots too much to stop, says cleric; Rising middle-class in no-man’s land; A Scottish perspective of East Belfast
1. – Kids are enjoying the riots too much to stop, says cleric
Liam Clarke in The Belfast Telegraph – A church minister has warned that young people in east Belfast will not turn away from recreational rioting because they are having too much fun.
Rev Johnston Lambe, minister at Mountpottinger Presbyterian Church, said youngsters he had worked with had refused offers of free paint-balling or go-karting trips because they do not want to miss out on riots this weekend.
Rev Lambe also said he saw little prospect of the unrest stopping imminently.
He and colleagues are working directly with youngsters at risk to try and get them off the streets and avoid long-term damage. He is particularly worried about the situation on the streets tonight and tomorrow.
“We have been offered funding to distract them to take them out of the areas. We couldn’t even get them to agree to that. Generally they would be breaking your neck to go paint-balling or go-karting but they are not interested in that now. They are just locked into a mindset at the moment,” he said.
“They are basically finding the demonstrations and riots fun.”
“We have a Youth Forum trying to encourage them to move out but why would you leave an activity that you are enjoying? In many cases they are afraid of missing something. As a result there is no interest in being taken out of the area, whatever you offer them.”
Rev Lambe (56) was raised in Rathcoole, a large, mainly loyalist estate in Newtownabbey, during the Troubles. It gives him an instinctive grasp of the dangers young people face if they get caught up in violence.
“We are working with kids from fourth form upwards, from age 14 to the early 20s,” he explained
He painted a bleak picture of youngsters on the lookout for excitement and feeling their community had lost out in the peace process.
“They seem to follow the crowd and it is a thrill for them. Imagine that, at 15 years of age, you are running down the road and the police are chasing you but they can’t catch you and you think you are getting away with it,” Rev Lambe said.
“That may seem like an enjoyable evening, but under these special courts those who are caught are getting custodial sentences.
“They will have criminal records that will affect them their whole lives.”
2. – Rising middle-class in no-man’s land as battle rages for the soul of Belfast
Telegraph – Riots over ban on British flag reveal the fault lines in Northern Ireland’s brave new world Belfast, Andrew Gilligan writes…
Matt Baggott, Northern Ireland’s chief constable, calls the flag crisis “the most challenging period we have had in the last decade.” How did it start? When, and how, will it end? Could it threaten a wider return to violence?…
…What East Belfast, Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey do have in common, however, are maverick factions of the Loyalist paramilitary organisation, the Ulster Volunteer Force.
“We’ve got no doubt whatever that this is coming from the UVF,” says Terry Spence, leader of the Police Federation for Northern Ireland.
The East Belfast leader of the UVF – the so-called “Beast from the East” – was not at home to callers when The Telegraph dropped in to his small terraced house in a quiet side street.
His white reinforced front door doesn’t have a knocker or a bell, but there are five CCTV cameras just in case anyone tries to murder him again.
Two of his lieutenants have been spotted in the background helping direct the main East Belfast riots.
Security sources say they are acting with the Beast’s consent, if not the UVF leadership’s active involvement, and he could end the trouble in the area whenever he wanted.
But the Beast, and the rest of the UVF’s leadership, have an urgent problem – a supergrass called Gary Haggarty, a former leader of the organisation in Carrickfergus and Newtownabbey, who has reportedly named every senior UVF man over the past 20 years. A trial based on his evidence is expected soon…
… Most experts still think a return to full-scale violence is very unlikely. “The big deal has been done. I shouldn’t underplay how bad the flag thing is, but it is a bagatelle,” says Paul Bew, professor of politics at Queen’s University, Belfast.
“It’s giving great pleasure to Catholics because the Protestants have lived up to cretinous stereotype.”
As Mr Bew points out, there has been no upsurge in terror activity by Loyalist groups. And after the collapse of the Republic’s economy, the Loyalists’ great fear of a united Ireland looks less likely than ever. Even the protests on Friday, for all their scale, were less extensive than many had expected.
How exactly this does end, though, is hard to know. The very incoherence of the protesters and their aims makes them much harder to deal with. “It’s not like the old days, when people like me or [First Minister] Peter Robinson could make six calls. You don’t have that level of control and knowledge any more,” admits Mike Nesbitt, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/northernireland/9797970/Rising-middle-class-in-no-mans-land-as-battle-rages-for-the-soul-of-Belfast.
3. – A Scottish perspective of East Belfast
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/uk-world-news/belfast-union-flag-riots-1530571