CHILDREN with special needs and their parents, meeting in a
Roman Catholic parish hall on Monday night, had to be rushed to
safety amid further rioting by Loyalists in East Belfast, who are
continuing to protest at restrictions on the flying of the Union
flag at the City Hall (
News, 11 January).
Parishioners at St Matthew's were escorted from the hall in the
Newtownards Road area when a gang hurled bricks, petrol bombs, and
other missiles at the RC enclave of the Short Strand, which is
surrounded by Loyalist-occupied estates.
In a separate incident, two buses were hijacked. The driver of
one received hospital treatment for lacerations to his face, after
a brick was thrown through his windscreen.
The former Sinn Fein mayor of Belfast, Niall Ó Donnghaile,
described the incident as "a blatant, well-planned, and organised
sectarian attack on this community". The First Minister of the
Northern Ireland Assembly, Peter Robinson, said that, "for many,
the issue of the flying of the Union flag at Belfast City Council
is now a cynical cover for the real political agenda, which is to
destroy the political process."
The PSNI Chief Constable, Matt Baggott, said that those
orchestrating the riots were leading young people "by the nose
towards prison".