Published: April 17, 2021
MOSCOW (Sputnik), Jonathan Rowson – The recent unrest in Northern Ireland that saw unionist youths engage in running battles with the police in Belfast has caught the world’s attention.
Experts have told Sputnik that the recent events may have been sparked by the mounting dissatisfaction with the UK-EU Brexit settlement in some communities and the rhetoric of political leaders.
For more than a week, members of the unionist community, those who wish for Northern Ireland to remain part of the United Kingdom, hurled stones, fireworks, and petrol bombs at police officers during sporadic clashes. One incident on 7 April saw youths hijack a bus and set it alight in Belfast.
John McGarry, a professor of comparative politics at Queen’s University in Kingston, Canada.
“Because the DUP’s poll numbers have been declining as a result of the way they mishandled matters, it has now decided to heat up the rhetoric and play the politics of polarisation to get its numbers back up – this has helped produce the riots,” McGarry said.
Brendan O’Leary, the Lauder Professor of Political Science at the University of Pennsylvania.
“When Johnson became leader of the Tories he promised he had an ‘oven-ready’ Brexit. The element that was oven-ready was the DUP’s goose. Johnson betrayed the DUP,” O’Leary said.
Jonathan Rowson 