Northern Ireland: “An explosive cocktail seized by the xenophobic international”

It is certain specific areas of Belfast that are affected, in other areas of the city nothing is happening. For thirty-five years, Northern Ireland experienced a conflict between two communities – Catholics and Protestant loyalists – around attachment to Ireland or the English crown. Despite the peace of Good Friday in 1998, we moved to a lower intensity conflict. A third group appears, in this case, migrants. They become the new scapegoats, it’s a classic mechanism. These riots take place in a context of economic crisis and persistent institutional blockages, after Brexit. Northern Ireland remains one of the poorest regions in the United Kingdom.

Who are the rioters?

There we find an idle youth, exploited by the far right. During the conflict, there were bridges between the British far right and loyalist paramilitaries. The latter explain that they did not support the rioters, but will do nothing to stop them… But they keep a very strong hold on certain neighborhoods. Anti-immigration parties are taking advantage of this to extend their influence. We are approaching July 12, the period when Protestant Orangemen march in Belfast to commemorate the victory of King William III over the Catholic king in 1690. A period of strong tensions. Last, it was also in June that a series of racist riots took place in Ballymena. Rioters attacked residents of foreign origin for almost a week after the indictment of two young Romanians for attempted rape of a teenage girl.

These riots also reveal the influence of social networks with the same mechanism that operates: a news item shamelessly exploited and amplified. In the present case add the anathemas of Elon Musk…

This is where we leave the Northern Irish exception. Behind all the riots, we are witnessing this mechanism in Scotland, in England… Social networks are setting everything on fire. The news item is shamelessly exploited by far-right parties and activists, often without connection with the field. English anti-Islam activist Tommy Robinson relayed calls for demonstrations in Belfast and everywhere else in the United Kingdom on Tuesday.

How can xenophobic discourse flourish when Northern Ireland has a 3.4% foreign population, compared to 18.3% for the rest of England?