Peter Cardwell

The Good Friday Agreement’s uneasy anniversary

(Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)

On the 23rd anniversary of the signing of the Belfast Agreement, it’s safe to say celebrations here in Northern Ireland will be muted at best.

Over the past ten days, hundreds of rioters wielding bricks, bottles, stones and petrol bombs in Belfast have injured more than 70 police officers, most notably in the west of the city, where working-class loyalists and republicans live cheek by jowl. In terrifying scenes, a bus driver narrowly escaped injury when his vehicle was petrol bombed and left to coast down a street.

The trigger for the violence was the decision by Northern Ireland’s public prosecution service not to bring charges against 24 Sinn Féin politicians who broke Covid restrictions at a funeral of an IRA leader, which 2,000 attended.

Inevitable accusations of ‘one rule for them’ ensued, with palpable anger from many who have been observing Covid restrictions for months. As a result, Arlene Foster, the First Minister, called for Northern Ireland’s chief constable to resign, even refusing to speak to him for a time.

It takes a lot to unite a petrol bomb-wielding loyalist and a liberal, knitwear-sporting Unionist pottering around a garden centre

After two decades of relative peace, the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland enjoy a high quality of life, with the highest per capita public sector spend in the whole of the UK.

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