Northern Ireland police attacked with petrol bombs on 25th anniversary of Good Friday deal

Derry [Northern Ireland], April 11 (ANI): Petrol bombs were thrown at the police officers, during a dissident Republican parade in Northern Ireland’s city of Derry, on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, a day ahead of US President Joe Biden’s visit to the country, according to Fox News.

The Monday’s violence came when masked youths, wearing paramilitary uniforms, marched through the street to commemorate the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising, in which Irish nationalists launched an armed insurrection in protest of the British rule. Monday also marked the 25-year anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, which ended three decades of the low-intensity civil war known as “the Troubles.”

According to Voice of America, the Good Friday agreement — which the United States helped to broker on April 10, 1998 — largely ended decades of sectarian violence that had plagued Northern Ireland since the late 1960s and that had also brought intermittent attacks to mainland Britain. While there is still some sporadic violence in Northern Ireland, the accord allowed a generation of children to grow up in relative peace.

The police in Northern Ireland described the attacks as “senseless and reckless on our officers”.
Nigel Goddard, the police chief in Derry, in a statement, said, “What we saw develop this afternoon in Creggan was incredibly disheartening. As the parade was un-notified, police were in attendance with a proportionate policing operation. Sadly, before the parade even started, we observed young people in the vicinity making petrol bombs to throw at police”, reported Fox News.

“Shortly after the parade commenced, petrol bombs and other objects were thrown at one of our vehicles at the junction of Iniscarn Road and Linsfort Drive,” he added.
Local newspapers reported on Sunday that the police service of Northern Ireland disrupted a bomb plot by members of the New IRA, a paramilitary splinter group of the Irish Republican Army.

Meanwhile, Biden is all set to travel to both sides of the Irish border this week, taking part in commemorations to mark the 25th anniversary of Northern Ireland’s Good Friday peace accord as well as making a pilgrimage to the towns of his Irish ancestors.

On Wednesday, President Biden will meet with UK Prime Minster Rishi Sunak in Belfast to commemorate the Good Friday Agreement, then give a speech at Ulster University before departing for Dublin to meet with Irish President Michael Higgins, according to Fox News.

“I’m the proud son of Catherine Eugenia Finnegan Biden,” Biden said at the annual Friends of Ireland Luncheon last year.

“And like so many Americans of Irish heritage, I love Ireland and was raised in a circumstance where you would have thought my whole family… they came in 1844 and 1845, but you’d think they’d all lived in Ireland the last 60 years — the previous 60 years,” Fox News quoted President Biden as saying.