The Specter

🇮🇪 🇬🇧 | Do you know who is behind the riots in Belfast? You've seen the videos: houses burning and migrants being attacked. But what the headlines keep missing is who is behind the violence. They are more than far-right. They are loyalists — loyal to the British Crown, who do not see the six counties of the North as part of Ireland at all. And, in their own words, they are just “getting the foreigners out.” They move in step with the wider British far right. Tommy Robinson and Reform UK have pushed for protests across the region. On the ground, the method is fear: immigrant families’ addresses shared online, shops set alight, doors kicked in. This violence has deep roots. Northern Ireland was carved out of Ireland through British partition in 1921, six counties kept under London’s rule. Loyalists fought to stay British, while republicans fought for a united Ireland. “The Troubles” killed more than 3,500 people before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. And the same loyalism that once burned out Republican neighborhoods is now turning on migrants. As migrants are chased through the streets, the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service responded to 62 incidents in just five hours on the first night. Three houses, a supermarket, and a city bus were set alight.

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