July 13, 2013 Dozens Injured in Northern Ireland as Protestants Riot Over Blocked Parade Route

July 13, 2013 Partition of Ireland

Dozens Injured in Northern Ireland as Protestants Riot Over Blocked Parade Route

BELFAST, Northern Ireland (AP) ― Hundreds of police reinforcements from Britain were deployed Saturday on Belfast’s rubble-strewn streets after Protestant riots over a blocked march left 32 officers, a senior lawmaker and at least 8 rioters injured.

Since the Good Friday peace agreement of 1998, the Northern Ireland police force has been cut nearly in half and, since 2007, British troops have stopped providing backup as part of wider efforts to normalize the situation. Once overwhelmingly Protestant, the police force is now 30 percent Catholic.

During Friday’s street fighting, rioters shouted anti-Catholic and anti-Irish epithets at officers and mocked their allegiance by draping their vehicles in the green, white and orange flags of the Republic of Ireland.

Source: The New York Times. July 14, 2013.