A 28-YEAR-OLD man has been arrested in connection with the firing of a shot at police lines during severe rioting in Ardoyne, north Belfast following a controversial Orange parade past the area.
He was being questioned yesterday at the Police Service of Northern Ireland’s serious crime suite at Antrim police station.
The detention followed another night of rioting on Tuesday in the nationalist area which saw up to 100 young people attack the PSNI with petrol bombs and bricks. Sectarian incidents were also reported in north and east Belfast as well as in Lurgan, Co Armagh.
Trouble flared for a second night and lasted for some three hours before calm was restored at about 1.30am yesterday.
Sinn Féin has claimed that very young children, some thought to be as young as 10, were being orchestrated by adults from Ardoyne and beyond.
Socialist republican group Éirígí blames the Orange Order and the PSNI for the trouble, while Sinn Féin has accused republicans opposed to the Stormont institutions and new policing arrangements.
Dissident groups strongly reject this. They claim that their membership is rising and that disillusionment is growing with the leadership of Sinn Féin in Stormont.
Sinn Féin representative in Ardoyne Margaret McClenaghan said those responsible for organising the second night of violence in the area were taking irresponsible risks with the lives of young people.
“Young ones are being encouraged by adults, some of them from within this community,” she said.
“These adults don’t have any sort of a peace strategy, they don’t know where they’re going and they’re going to end up getting one of these children killed.” Some 21 PSNI officers were hurt in the most serious trouble after an Orange lodge made its return from the main Belfast Twelfth demonstration. Plastic bullets were fired and police officers with rifles took up positions after a gunman was allegedly spotted.
Trouble also broke out in nationalist Short Strand area of east Belfast with rival groups attacking each other. Sinn Féin representative Niall O Donghaille said: “It was wrong and I condemn it. I saw the community in the Short Strand coming out like they never had before to tell an essentially anti-social element that residents wouldn’t tolerate it,” he said.
“What you have here is a small number of youths holding an area to ransom.”
Police are also investigating an attempted sectarian arson attack on the Star of the Sea primary school in the Shore road area of north Belfast. In Co Armagh supporters of Belfast football club Crusaders were attacked by people throwing petrol bombs and other missiles as they returned from a match in Lurgan.