A Wrinkle in the Peace Process

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I had not planned an posting another entry to this blog until Thursday or Friday of this week. However, due to some recent events here in Northern Ireland I felt it necessary to share with you what has happened over the past couple of days. Monday morning I awoke to my usual cup of coffee and reading of the BBC news on its website. I was taken aback when I found a report of unrest in Derry. This caught my eye as I was there only two weeks ago. In the early hours of Sunday rioting broke out in the city center. It was eventually put down by the PSNI (Police Service of Northern Ireland). It is quite interesting as the news services here have yet to give a detailed account of what happened, so what follows is more or less my guess at what took place through some form of deductive reasoning.

Late last week two petrol bombs, similar to molotov cocktails, were thrown at the Sinn Fein headquarters in Derry. Sinn Fein is the major nationalist political party in Northern Ireland. Though the BBC did not elaborate as to the cause, I would venture to guess that the riot that occurred this past Sunday was in response to this particular event. I would also go so far as to say that nationalists were the primary proponents behind the unrest. There have been accusations that the PSNI used excessive force to quell the rioters. This is not particularly surprisng due to the fact that there are certain factions here that view the PSNI as the replacement to the British military. These accusations also reinforce my belief that the rioters were of nationalist persuasions. While people here don't seem to be overly concerned about the incident, it has been pointed out that the city center has always been understood to be neutral territory. Obviously Sunday's event would have overstepped the bounds of that neutrality.

That is what I know, or at least reason, at this point. I will certainly post new entries regarding the situation as information becomes available.

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