BREAKING: Masked protesters throw petrol bombs as police are attacked in Londonderry on 25th anniversary of Good Friday Agreement as US President Joe Biden prepares to fly in
Masked protesters have thrown petrol bombs at a police vehicle in Londonderry as violence erupted on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement.
A police Land Rover was engulfed in flames as parades marking the Easter Rising got underway.
Police appealed for calm after their officers came under attack during a dissident republican march in the Creggan area of Northern Ireland’s second-largest city.
It comes ahead of US President Joe Biden’s arrival in Northern Ireland tomorrow as part of the celebrations to mark the Good Friday Agreement, the historic peace deal signed in April 1998.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said: ‘Our officers have come under attack in Creggan with petrol bombs and other objects thrown at their vehicle while in attendance at an un-notified Easter parade.
‘No injuries have been reported at this time. We would appeal for calm.’
The PSNI Land Rover was fitted with a CCTV camera and had been monitoring the parade, which was led by a number of people in paramilitary-style dress.
The parade travelled to the City Cemetery in Creggan.
Masked protesters have thrown petrol bombs at a police vehicle in Londonderry as violence erupted on the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement
A police Land Rover was engulfed in flames as parades marking the Easter Rising got underway
The PSNI Land Rover was fitted with a CCTV camera and had been monitoring a parade, which was led by a number of people in paramilitary-style dress
It comes ahead of US President Joe Biden ‘s arrival in Northern Ireland tomorrow as part of the celebrations to mark the Good Friday Agreement, the historic peace deal signed in April 1998
Mr Biden, who is intensely proud of his Irish heritage and the US role in the establishment of the Good Friday Agreement, will arrive in Belfast tomorrow evening.
But his visit will come at a precarious moment in the history of the 1998 peace deal.
Last month, the terror threat level in Northern Ireland was raised to ‘severe’ meaning an attack is considered to be highly likely.
There is also a continued political crisis in Northern Ireland, with the DUP still refusing to re-enter powersharing at Stormont as part of their protest against post-Brexit trade arrangements.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris has warned that recent dissident republican attacks demonstrated there were ‘a small number of people who want to drag us all back to the dark old days’.
‘It’s a stark reminder of the fragility of peace,’ the Cabinet minister said.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will meet Mr Biden off his presidential jet, Air Force One, when he arrives on Tuesday evening.
The US President will leave Northern Ireland on Wednesday and travel to the Republic of Ireland, where he will visit Dublin and County Louth.
He will also make a trip to his ancestors’ home town of Ballina, County Mayo, where locals have prepared the town to receive him and decorations are already in place.
The American leader, who is intensely proud of his Irish heritage and the US’s role in the peace accord, will visit his ancestors’ home town of Ballina (bar owner Michael Carr pictured) in Mayo later this week.
But it will come after he take part in a series of engagements in Belfast including a formal meeting with the Prime Minister – amid warnings over the peace that the GFA achieved.
Mr Biden will leave Northern Ireland on Wednesday for the Republic, where he will visit Dublin, Co Louth and Co Mayo.
Joe Biden;s fifth cousin Councillor Andrea McKevitt, outside Fitzpatrick’s bar and restaurant in Jenkinstown, Co Louth, where then vice-president met locals during his visit in 2016
Derek Furlong poses in the window of his Ballina photo centre, as he and others dress up their business properties in the town centre
In a statement, Mr Sunak said the signing of the Good Friday Agreement was an ‘incredible moment’ in the history of the UK.
‘It was a powerfully rare example of people doing the previously unthinkable to create a better future for Northern Ireland,’ he said.
‘It is that promise of a better future that we offered to everyone in Northern Ireland that I will be thinking of first and foremost over the coming days.
‘It is my responsibility as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom to ensure we are making good on that promise.’
Signed on 10 April 1998, the Good Friday Agreement ended the 30-year conflict known as The Troubles, during which more than 3,500 people were killed.
Mr Sunak said he is ‘relentlessly focused’ on delivering economic growth for Northern Ireland, which he said is crucial to improving living standards.
He is expected to use Mr Biden’s visit to drum up long-term investment for the Northern Ireland, and announce that the UK will host a Northern Ireland Investment Summit in September.
The PM will address the ‘Agreement 25’ conference at Queen’s University Belfast on Wednesday before hosting a gala dinner.
A major policing operation costing around £7 million and backed up by around 300 officers travelling from other parts of the UK will be under way around the anniversary.
The PSNI had warned of the potential of dissident republicans launching attacks on police officers in Londonderry on Easter Monday.
MI5 recently raised the terrorism threat in Northern Ireland level to severe, meaning an attack is highly likely.
Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the DUP leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, has insisted the political vacuum in Northern Ireland caused by his party’s refusal to re-enter powersharing at Stormont is not to blame.
Last year, the DUP withdrew its support for the Stormont institutions formed by the Good Friday Agreement as part of its protests against post-Brexit trading arrangements.
Signed on April 10 1998, the Good Friday Agreement ended the 30-year conflict of the Troubles, during which more than 3,500 people were killed.
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Heaton-Harris said the threat from dissident republicans was ‘a stark reminder of the fragility of peace’, and urged the Democratic Unionist Party to get back into Government.
Mr Heaton-Harris said no-one could put a timeline on when powersharing would be back up and running.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Westminster Hour: ‘Anybody who is predicting a date by which the executive would go back in Northern Ireland would be someone who can also sell you a four-leaf clover. No one knows – deadlines are deadly in Northern Ireland term.’
Writing in The Telegraph, the Northern Ireland Secretary added: ‘Across a range of measures, the people of Northern Ireland are being directly impacted because of an ongoing lack of locally accountable devolved government.
‘The UK Government wants to see the Northern Ireland institutions delivering better public services, more investment and a stronger Union based on prosperity… there is no surer way to achieve that than for political parties to come together to get on with the job of delivering on the people’s priorities and to make Northern Ireland work.’
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