Double standards over Derry clashes

The imposition of a huge sectarian parade through Derry by the loyalist Apprentice Boys organisation resulted in an outbreak of rioting on Saturday, with fireworks, petrol bombs and other missiles being thrown at PSNI vehicles.

Trouble erupted in Nailors Row in the city’s Bogside area on Saturday night, when dozens of people were involved in clashes during which armoured police vehicle were hit by petrol bombs.

Mainstream media reports of the incident focused on condemnation of the rioting and the involvement of a child who was filmed throwing a petrol bomb at the PSNI.

Saroadh’s Stephen Murney accused those involved, including the SDLP leader Colum Eastwood, of avoiding “the root cause of the trouble that occurred”.

“The riot manifested itself following one of many unwanted annual sectarian rituals that takes place on the edge of the Bogside in Derry,” he said.

“The sectarian hatefest coupled with a heavy crown force presence resulted in young people engaging in rioting.

“When such sectarian hate displays occur the residents of Derry avoid their own city centre.”

While some of the most contentious parades by the larger body, the Orange Order, have been stopped or rertoutned in recent ecandes, there has been little progress in ending the annual provocations of the ‘Apprentice Boys of Derry’ (ABOD).

Nationalists are driven out of Derry by the PSNI every year for one of the North’s largest and most provocative annual sectarian parades, the ‘Relief of Derry’ parade, which celebrates a 17th century siege victory.

Behind police lines, there was the usual performance of inflammatory racist and sectarian tunes including ‘No Pope In Rome’ and the ‘Famine Song’, both favourites of loyalist hate groups and extreme British nationalists.

There was also support for the British Army’s Bloody Sunday massacre, when 14 nationalist civil rights demonstrators were gunned down, and some loyalists were captured in a social club after the parade, chanting sectarian and UVF songs, including the line “f**k the Pope and the Virgin Mary”.

Mr Murney said that some trouble was inevitable, adding that Mr Eastwood offered “no evidence or proof” for his claim that republicans orchestrated the violence.

“More importantly I would like to directly challenge his comments regarding ‘child abuse’,” he said.

“Colum Eastwood can sit comfortably from afar and berate these young people while ignoring the reason they took to the streets in the first place,” he claimed.

“Would he have condemned a young petrol bomber, Paddy Coyle, in 1969?”

Paddy Coyle is rememvered as ‘the boy in the mask’, photographed in a WW2 gas mask in the rioting which followed an ABOD parade in 1969 and immortalised by a mural in the city.

Mr Murney, who is a former republican prisoner, said the SDLP leader had failed to identify the “real reason” for last weekend’s violence.

“Poverty, capitalism, imperialism, sectarianism, and it all stems from British occupation,” he said.

Mr Murney said that children are regularly abused by the Crown Forces during raids and stop and search operations.

“Time and time again children are forced from their parent’s cars as heavily armed members rifle through the vehicle, search their parents and their belongings,” he said.

“For any child to endure this is a form of child abuse, one that undoubtedly has lasting effects.

“On numerous occasions young children have been left traumatised as a result of dawn house raids involving dozens of armed PSNI members.”

He said his own children have been singled out.

“I am a father of five children aged from three years to 18 years and they have endured more stop and searches and house raids than most adults,” he said.

“Our children are being punished because of the perceived sins of their parents, and that is wrong.”

Mr Murney said that children’s future prospects can also be impacted.

“During these raids children are forced to watch their father or mother being handcuffed and hauled away,” he said.

“Children’s ipads, tablets and laptops are routinely seized as ‘evidence’ during these incursions.

“At times these laptops contain coursework for exams thus Interfering with children’s education.

“On how many occasions has Colum Eastwood spoke out against the above incidents of child abuse?”

Urgent Appeal