Police main target as violence continues in Belfast

BELFAST - Belfast is once again counting the cost - human, financial and social - of the familiar mid-July outbreak of disorder which has injured dozens of people and brought destruction on to its streets.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland suffered most this year with more than 80 officers hurt by petrol bombs, thrown missiles, and in one case by a shotgun blast.

In one potentially serious incident, an attempt was made in Lurgan, County Armagh, to hijack and burn the Enterprise train which runs between Belfast and Dublin. The driver managed to steer his train out of trouble and there were no injuries.

Television images of rioting seem to make a mockery of the Irish peace process.

This year the disorder has also led to striking signs of differences within the authorities, with senior police officers pointedly calling on politicians to act with more urgency to tackle parading disputes. Criticism has also been levelled at the police themselves, the Orange Order and Sinn Fein.

However, the impression is that the overall level of disturbance has not been higher than recent years. The exception is the high number of police injuries. Officers appear to have been targeted by republican dissidents, the main source of this year's violence.

Almost everywhere, the hundreds of parades staged on the 12th of July, the climax of the Orange marching season, took place without incident. Most of the isolated outbreaks of violence took place in districts housing pockets of dissident republicans.

As usual, the most heated clashes took place at the flashpoint of Ardoyne in north Belfast. This year republican dissidents, many of whom sympathise with terrorist groups such as the Real IRA, had encouraged supporters to travel there to stage protests.

Violence elsewhere tended to be sporadic, but dissidents remain active at a more lethal level. At the weekend they detonated a substantial bomb beneath a south Armagh road, leaving a large crater. While no one was injured, it was clearly part of attempts to kill members of the security forces.

The PSNI's Assistant Chief Constable, Alastair Finlay, declared: "Northern Ireland cannot afford to have violent images beamed across the world every summer - images which are totally unrepresentative of the vast majority of people who have embraced a peaceful and vibrant future."

He criticised Stormont's First Minister, Peter Robinson, and Deputy First Minister, Martin McGuinness, saying: "There are individual politicians working very hard on this, but ... are we seeing the First Minister or the Deputy First Minister stepping out to condemn this and showing that they will have a plan to meet this issue next time it comes round, rather than waiting until it inevitably comes next year?"

In a sharp response, Robinson described the remarks as "unhelpful and unacceptable".

- Independent