A small town in Northern Ireland has 2 nights of anti-immigrant violence. Why? – National

Police in Northern Ireland said 17 police officers were injured on the second night in the town of Balimena, where the thugs threw bricks, bottles, gas bombs and fireworks and burned several vehicles and houses.

Police used water cannons and fired rubber bullets to disperse crowds of hundreds of people. The Northern Ireland Police Department said on Wednesday that the violence was reduced at 1 a.m. local time (0000gmt).

Five people were arrested on suspicion of “riot”.

The violence broke out after Monday's peaceful march, showing support for the families of victims suspected of sexual assault last weekend. Two 14-year-old boys were charged.

The age of the suspect has not been determined. They were supported by Romanian interpreters in court.

After the march, a group of most young people caught fire on several houses and hit police with projectiles. Northern Ireland Police said 15 officers were injured that night.

After the darkness, similar scenes were available on Tuesday, along with minor obstacles to several other Northern Ireland towns.

Police say demagogues on social media are helping to fuel what Assistant Chief Police Officer Ryan Henderson calls “the racist thuggery.”

Some politicians say immigration has strained 30,000 towns about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Belfast, known as the tough pro-British loyalist fortress.

Jim Allister, the leader of the traditional unionist voice of the Conservative Party, said: “Unorganized immigration is beyond the reach of towns that can be dealt with and is a source of past and future tensions.”

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Some Romanians in Ballymena told the British PA News Agency that they have lived in the town for many years and were shocked by the violence.

Several homes in the Cronavin Terrace area were the focus of the violence, raising signs that identified its residents as British or Filipinos in an apparent attempt to avoid being targeted.

Henderson said there is no evidence that faithful paramilitary personnel remained swaying against the Protestant community.

Northern Ireland has a long history of street barriers, dating back to tensions between British Unionists and Irish nationalist communities.

Although thirty years of violence have been called “trouble”, most of it ended after the 1998 peace agreement, tensions remained between mostly Catholic British and Irish nationalists, mostly Catholic. In Belfast, the “Peace Wall” still separates the working class Protestant and Catholic diocese.

Street mobs occasionally clash with police, and immigration has recently become a target.

Three girls were stabbed to death in Northern Ireland and England last year during a dance class on the theme of Taylor Swift in Southport, Northwest England, and three girls were stabbed to death, and anti-immigrant violence broke out in Northern Ireland as well as in England. Authorities say online misinformation plays a role in treating teenage attackers born in the UK as immigrants.

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Hundreds of people were arrested in the far-right riot in Britain after a fatal stabbing rampage with a dance class themed by Taylor Swift

Police condemned the latest violence and said they would call on officials in England and Wales to strengthen their response when needed.

All parties in Northern Ireland’s Power Sharing Government issued a joint statement calling for peace and urging people to reject the “severe agenda pursued by a minority of destructive malicious actors”.

In the alleged sexual assault, the statement added: “It is crucial that judicial proceedings can now take action so that a significant investigation of such outrageous crimes can be carried out. Those who have weapons for the situation to sow racial tensions do not care about justice and nothing can provide community and division and chaos for their communities.”

& Copy 2025 Canadian Press