BBC: Union flag protests after Belfast City Hall decision

[visionary]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-20621052

Union flag protests after Belfast City Hall decision

A number of police officers have been injured in Northern Ireland after disturbances in Carrickfergus in County Antrim.

Police say that about 15,000 people gathered at the Irish Gate roundabout earlier to protest against Belfast City Council's decision to stop flying the union flag every day.

The BBC's Mark Simpson said the timing of the disturbances was important with a looming visit from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/...8B41JT20121205

Second night of Northern Irish riots ahead of Clinton visit

A number of police officers were injured in Northern Ireland on Wednesday in a second night of rioting this week, just two days before U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visits to lend support to the province's fragile peace.

Up to 1,600 pro-British loyalists, enraged at a decision by nationalist councilors to remove the Union Jack flag from above the entrance of Belfast City Council, battled again with police, 15 of whom were injured after the council decision on Monday.

Police fired plastic bullets when they came under attack with bricks, bottles and other missiles in Carrickfergus, county Antrim, a few miles outside Belfast. Four people were arrested, a police spokesman said and police officers were injured, though he declined to give a number.

An office belonging to the centrist, non-sectarian Alliance Party, whose support enabled nationalists vote to bring down the British flag, was also ransacked and set on fire during the rioting, according to a spokesman for the fire services.

[Stadium-Armory]

Misleading headline. It has nothing to do with Clinton other than coincidence.

[visionary]

Misleading headline. It has nothing to do with Clinton other than coincidence.

That's what I thought too.
Although it seems her visit may involve this.


Actually I think I'll change the title and lead with a different article.
I don't want people getting the wrong idea.

[Stadium-Armory]

I wasn't suggesting that YOU were misleading at all.

Thanks for making this a pretty good place to consume news.

[Corcaigh]

So the Nationalists have a majority on Belfast City Council and vote to take down the Union Flag, except for certain days of the year.

The Unionist parties encourage demonstrations by their mobs which result in political offices of a liberal political party (non-sectarian Alliance party which supported removing the flag) getting burned, and Catholic churches and homes getting attacked. .

****ing idiots on both sides.

[visionary]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/...90B0D320130112

Police injured in renewed Northern Irish rioting

Four police officers were injured during clashes between pro-British and Irish nationalist youths in Belfast on Saturday following another protest against the decision to remove the British flag from city hall.

Nationalists threw golf balls and stones at a crowd walking home from a rally in the city centre demanding for the return of the flag. Police used water cannon and at least one plastic bullet round in a bid to restore calm.

The unrest over the past five weeks has been some of the most sustained in the British-ruled province since a 1998 peace deal ended 30 years of conflict between Catholic Irish nationalists seeking union with Ireland and Protestant loyalists determined to remain part of the United Kingdom.

[Larry]

Flag.

- Eddie Izzard.