Riots demand 'serious attention from Government'

THE RIOTING in east Belfast demands the Government’s serious attention, Taoiseach Enda Kenny has said, as he told the Dáil that the Short Strand community “gains nothing from episodes like what took place last night and the night before”.

He said that those involved cannot and will not be allowed to disrupt the normalisation of relations across the community for which so many have worked hard for so many years.

Mr Kenny was responding to Fianna Fáil leader Micheál Martin who said that the prize of peace has been hard won and the two governments, together with the Northern Ireland Executive, must act with absolute resolve.

He raised the issue in the wake of two nights of rioting in the Short Strand in which a photographer was shot and injured, and two other men were also being treated for gunshot wounds.

Mr Martin warned that while the Short Strand “interface” between the two communities was a flashpoint for decades, both the scale and the nature of the violence are extremely serious.

He added that the only clarity had been that there were small groups seeking to inflame and exploit the situation, and they cannot be allowed to succeed.

Otherwise, it will send a grim signal to many other communities throughout Northern Ireland, said the former minister for foreign affairs, who highlighted the “danger in allowing a security vacuum to develop in this area of the city”.

He stressed that given the seriousness of what had occurred a stronger and more proactive role should be taken on board by the Government”.

Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams said there was a need for calm and leadership but that acts of practical solidarity with those communities were needed from the Dáil.

He called on deputies from every party “to go quietly to Belfast and to make an arrangement to visit some of these areas”.

Mr Kenny, who will make his first trip to Northern Ireland as Taoiseach this weekend, said those who orchestrated the violence should not be permitted to undermine the good work carried out across the communities over many years.

The Taoiseach said that PSNI Chief Superintendent Alan McCrum had stated that the troubles “had been orchestrated by the loyalist paramilitary group the UVF”.

Mr Kenny said it was perfectly obvious there have been internal tensions within the UVF.

He also said the Government would assist and co-operate in any way it could.

Mr Martin called on the Taoiseach to bring forward additional proposals to increase the Government’s work with communities in the North because it had a vital role to play.

Mr Kenny said: “Unemployment and lack of activity are the cancer that eats away at the heart of the peace process.”

This, he stressed, required constant vigilance and highlighted the importance of education, direct intervention from the Assembly with the assistance from the two governments, as well as the United States and the European Union.