WORRYING times in the North of Ireland again, with what appears to be concerted civil unrest taking place everywhere from north Belfast to mid-Ulster.
The trouble was sparked off, as ever, by contentious Orange feeder parades.
A concerted nationalist show of force responded to these, with predictable results.
Riots took place in Belfast, Derry, Armagh and Lurgan, with a strong indication that the disturbances were orchestrated by dissident republican groups.
Fortunately, Sinn Féin’s Martin McGuinness and the DUP’s Peter Robinson stood together in condemning this apparent slide back to darker days, and for that we should be thankful.
Any hint of a split in the governance of the North of Ireland at this time could have very serious repercussions. Other encouraging signs emerged during the unrest. In the solidly nationalist area of Ardoyne, local residents came out to stop rioters.
The huge majority of people living in these areas want no return to violence. Gerry Adams has dismissed the dissident republicans as ‘little more than criminal gangs’, while others have labelled the rioters mindless thugs.
This may be true, but the widespread and coordinated nature of the rioting, attacks on security forces and attempted incineration of a train and its passengers, suggest a well-orchestrated, if very sinister, campaign.
Security forces have revealed that dissident republicans are better armed than previously believed, with the capability of mounting a bombing campaign in the North of Ireland, and perhaps even in Britain.
Conditions in the North of Ireland are vastly different from four decades ago. The Troubles started in 1968 when a civil rights march was bludgeoned into history.
What flowed in the aftermath of that has passed into history — internment, Bloody Sunday, violence and mayhem. Today the Saville Report has been published, David Cameron has apologised for the behaviour of the British Army — and Derry is the UK City of Culture.
But the North is still a tinder box, with religious strife bubbling just under the surface. Everyone in Ireland and in the Diaspora — particularly in Britain and America — must make it clear there can be no return to the past. The heavy boulder of peace which was slowly being pushed uphill must not be allowed to start rolling back down again.
A welcome return
AMIDST all the gloomy news of enforced emigration, one tale of immigration should gladden the heart of every Irish person.
After centuries of absence, the woodpecker has returned to Ireland’s shores.
BirdWatch Ireland has confirmed some 20 or more pairs are breeding in Wicklow and Wexford.
The absence of the woodpecker has been a glaring ecological deficit in Ireland’s woodland ecology.
It’s not clear when these birds were lost but their decrease almost certainly coincided with the loss of our great deciduous forests.
Evidence for the great spotted woodpecker as a former Irish resident is limited, but it does get name-checked in ancient Irish literature.
The bird is a delight to see, and the sound of it drumming in a wood is one of the most evocative sounds the countryside has to offer.Welcome back!