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Anarchy in Ardoyne... now it’s death threats
Friday, 17 July 2009
Trouble at Ardoyne shops in north Belfast. Trouble flared in the build up to the parade passing the shops on its way back from the main Belfast march.
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A death threat from dissident republicans will not deter Sinn Fein junior minister Gerry Kelly from his work, he has vowed.
The North Belfast assembly member said police did not say who was behind the threat phoned to the Samaritans on Wednesday, but that he was warned to ‘watch his back’.
Mr Kelly said: “While I take this threat seriously, be certain that it will not detract me from my political work or from representing the people of north Belfast.”
He called on republican splinter groups Republican Network for Unity, Republican Sinn Fein, Eirigi and the 32 County Sovereignty Movement, to justify what he claimed was their role in three nights of rioting in Ardoyne.
He said the groups were “microgroups” who were “euphemistically called dissident republicans”.
“I am once again calling on spokespeople for the various dissident organisations to explain the rationale for leaving a loaded weapon in the middle of Ardoyne, which was found by children and worse again for firing shots and using pipe bombs in the midst of a riot situation, which is uncontrolled and where you have many children in the vicinity.”
He said the groups came to |Ardoyne early on Monday afternoon and displaced an official protest by residents.
“It is up to them to explain to the community why, for the third successive night, they have encouraged young people, many of them children, to bring havoc and untold disruption and trauma onto the community of Ardoyne.
“It is easy to start a riot, but very difficult to stop it. It becomes a magnet for all sorts of people.”
He said people in the area had become involved, “who are disaffected and at other times of year, threaten the area with area with anti-social behaviour”.
It would require “deep cynicism” to believe that dissidents wished to create a situation of such violence that a child might be killed. “But if you bring weapons into a riot situation, it’s not a controlled situation,” he said.
“With weapons and pipe bombs, then it is a miracle — and I don’t exaggerate here — and that we are sitting here and not dealing with that situation.”
But he also criticised the Orange Order. “Marching up through areas where they are clearly not wanted is a clear provocation”.
Two men arrested after a shot was fired at police on Monday were released unconditionally.
And the home of a Sinn Fein worker in north Belfast was petrol bombed on Wednesday morning, causing minor scorch damage.
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39 Comments
i was in north belfast for a wee bit over a year and i must have been very naive at that time. now that i've been back here in sweden and i hear bout everything that's still going on over there i worry bout all the people i got to know even though it's been like 8 years since i left and i can't understand how you lot can be so narrowminded after all this time and all the violence and so on. the world only gets to see the bad side and not the nice and lovely side i know there is over there. but hey, i'm probably still very naive aren't i. enjoy wrecking what could be a lovely place.
Posted by caterine | 22.07.09, 22:02 GMT
Fada you don't have to go to the parade to see its sectarian nature, you can do so from the comfort of your own home. The BT has helped out, as Cedric points out if you look at the pictures of the 12th that their readers have uploaded on one there is a group of drums. All of them have UFF emblems!!!
I wonder is it the Northern nine counties or just the Northern six that are infected with racism, sectarianism and hate? I'm glad my kids growing up in Dublin will never understand the hatred you show for each other! Oh wait, I mean I'm glad my kids will never understand the "Culture" you show for each other...
Posted by Bren | 20.07.09, 12:03 GMT
With respect to the many diverse opinions (valid and otherwise) expressed herein.......
The solution to this annually recurring situation is to divert the PSNI effort to policing the revellers in Bangor which will clear the way for a robust loyalist response to these miscreants, once and for all.
Posted by tommy hall | 18.07.09, 00:14 GMT
I left Belfast 45 years ago, like most people who emigrated I have not only retained an affection for the place and the people.
As I get to the end of my days often wonder what would have happened to me if I had stayed at home?
I read the Telly on the net every day and shake my head .
The subject of Belfast and it's sectarian bigotry has for me now become " banal " aand that saddens me.
This story is warped and actually funny in the irony of it.
The players could change but would apply equally irrespective to which small minded group .
Is it not time that wiser people in the society demanded it's leaders forget the b.s. and undertake the requirement to bring the community together starting with a unified education system.
It's 2009 for God's sake.
Posted by d.patterson | 17.07.09, 22:01 GMT
But for the intervention of the British armed forces, Ardoyne would have been purged of republicans/nationalists/sfira in 1969.
Yeah right Tommy! Now there in a couple of lines is the total summation of where N Ireland is still at after all these years. People like Tommy sorry thousands of innocent people where not burned out of their homes and murdered. Just as well Tommy is talking about Catholics and not Jews, Romas or Poles or he could be charged under the race laws.
I suppose the hundreds of inncoent people murdered just isnt enough for some people in Northern Ireland.
Posted by Joe | 17.07.09, 21:48 GMT
Joe,
The Catholic people of Ardoyne live behind the shop fronts. Protestant houses in Twaddell are actually closer. Also Ardoyne is Catholic only because the Protestants were put out like so many areas in Belfast. The row of houses at the top of the Woodvale road have been knocked down after lying derelict for so long because they were systematically attacked by Catholic neighbours. The houses on the the front of the Crumlin Road and Mountainview used to be mixed but again protestants had to leave. Seems to me Protestants are not welcome full stop. If they took off their sashes and tried to walk home on the footpath they would still be attacked.
Posted by get real | 17.07.09, 21:30 GMT
Joe,
The Catholic people of Ardoyne live behind the shop fronts. Protestant houses in Twaddell are actually closer. Also Ardoyne is Catholic only because the Protestants were put out like so many areas in Belfast. The row of houses at the top of the Woodvale road have been knocked down after lying derelict for so long because they were systematically attacked by Catholic neighbours. The houses on the the front of the Crumlin Road and Mountainview used to be mixed but again protestants had to leave. Seems to me Protestants are not welcome full stop. If they took off their sashes and tried to walk home on the footpath they would still be attacked.
Posted by get real | 17.07.09, 21:22 GMT
The Crumlin Road is a major arterial route. There is no good reason why the Orangemen should not walk it. Listening to the propaganda of the greenshirt fascist sectarian thugs one would think that they were marching through the side streets of Ardoyne with poor peacenik republicans whimpering in fear behind their front doors.
The riots are clearly meant to intimidate the Parades Commission into denying the Orangemen their civil rights.
PS - the police should shoot petrol bombers (of whatever ilk).
Posted by Mark | 17.07.09, 21:06 GMT
The OO is no more than a cultural organisation. That picture in the twelfth gallery of a uff drum at one of the parades is a mistake. The OO might prefer these murderous terrorist thugs hide their identity during the big day - we're all just orangemen after all. anyone who displays terrorist regalia should ensure the press does not become aware of it. The OO press office is at this moment probably preparing a statement condemning displays of terrorist groups during the parades..don't hold your breath.
Tthe uff butchered, tortured and when they then got bored slaughtered catholics. UFF drums are welcome on the 12th.
Posted by Cedric | 17.07.09, 20:13 GMT
The IRA murdered 275 innocent Orangemen. A very high price to pay because of the naked sectarian hatred inherent in Republicanism.
Posted by Billy | 17.07.09, 11:33 GMT
***************************************************
"275 innocent orangeman" sounds like a convenient "round" number and probably not accurate. One life lost for this insanity of the past 40 years is too many, much less the published 3000approx.
When I read your garbage I am not too optimistic about the future for N. Ireland. It seems to me that these so called "innocent orangemen" are every bit as guilty for the violence as the rest.
The problem is that it requires an intelligent un-biased analysis of the situation in order to come up with a long term solution that will move N. Ireland into the 21st. century. Something you are just incapable off Billy!
Posted by Edward | 17.07.09, 17:48 GMT
Ive said it before and I'll say it again, this is the only country where people deliberately go out of there way to be offended. Its sad really. Its back to the old days. Did they ever really go away?
Posted by kj north belfast | 17.07.09, 16:54 GMT
One Ardoyne ends at Alliance Ave.There is and never was soemwhere called Upper or Lower Ardoyne. Another loyalist make believe! Its Glenbyrn Estate which is to the right of Alliance. Actually to the left is Glenard and Ardoyne only really applies to the smalll estates to the left of Brompton Park.
Two there is an alternative route which runs from the Shankill up to the areas they live in. But of course no one would be bothered if the OO went that way.
Three There are houses all along the Crumlin road route who put up with this every year.
Posted by Joe | 17.07.09, 16:28 GMT
the rioters were there in plain sight, just do what it takes even if you have to tazer them all, then throw them in jail. how does this happen in every riot,
Posted by Rowan | 17.07.09, 16:09 GMT
But for the intervention of the British armed forces, Ardoyne would have been purged of republicans/nationalists/sfira in 1969.
Posted by tommy hall | 17.07.09, 15:53 GMT
p haran.
you'd never make a political strategist - go back to chopping firewood........
Posted by seymour freeman | 17.07.09, 15:43 GMT
I'm a catholic and I believe the Police should have used plastic bullets on these thugs! then arrest them and lock them up for a very long time.
Posted by John | 17.07.09, 15:17 GMT
still no arrests why not ??? thousands of pounds of damage and wanton destruction for a one minute march across some delapidated shopfronts .
Ardoyne needs to wise up !!!!!!!!
Posted by realist | 17.07.09, 14:25 GMT
But he also criticised the Orange Order. “Marching up through areas where they are clearly not wanted is a clear provocation”. ..I do not always agree with Mr. Kelly but in this instance he is correct. Legal or illegal we know from history what can provoke trouble in Ireland. You could expect trouble also if republican/bands were to march in the same proximity to loyalist area's.
Posted by USA | 17.07.09, 13:46 GMT
How cynical. And what an abuse of the Samaritans helplines too.
Got help us all if such thugs ever manage to gain political power.
Posted by laura | 17.07.09, 13:34 GMT
No matter how much mess is in the cesspit of world's politics, why does Northern Ireland always manage to float to the top?
Posted by Niall | 17.07.09, 13:25 GMT
39 Comments