Lockdown files: What's going on in Northern Ireland?

For days now, rioting has set the streets of Belfast, Derry and other pockets in Northern Ireland ablaze. Why has such violence broken out? What is the link with Brexit? How dangerous is it for the United Kingdom as a nation?

To understand the causes of this complex, historical situation, read the Guardian Explainers page: Northern Ireland unrest: why has violence broken out? and scroll down for essential definitions at the bottom of this page.

Northern Ireland has been rocked by six successive nights of violence with 55 police officers injured in a level of unrest “not seen in years”.

What is happening?

Serious unrest has spilled on to the streets since Good Friday in pockets of unionist areas in Derry, Belfast and other towns in County Antrim. Cars have been set on fire and petrol bombs have been thrown at police, leaving 48 officers injured, including seven on Wednesday night during the worst disturbances so far in Belfast.

The Northern Ireland policing board said the attacks on officers were “truly shocking” while the Northern Ireland executive in a joint statement after an emergency debate described the events as “deplorable”.

On Wednesday night, protests started near the peace wall in central Belfast separating unionist and nationalist communities in the Shankill and Springfield areas, with tyres and bins set alight in the afternoon. As the evening wore on the violence escalated.

Who is involved?

The violence has taken place in predominantly loyalist areas in Derry, and the Belfast city centre.

The numbers involved have been small knots of 20, 30 to 40 people, but the sustained nature of the attacks and the seriousness of Wednesday night’s violence has shaken many and led to calls for action.

Many have expressed deep concern about the involvement of children, some as young as 12, fuelling suspicion that the violence is being orchestrated and directed behind the scenes.

What is the background to the unrest?

Tensions in loyalist communities have been heightened since Brexit checks came into force in January and there is a wider unease in the unionist community that the constitutional position of Northern Ireland, one of four countries in the UK, has been put under threat by the Brexit settlement.

Although the region voted to remain in the EU, the DUP backed Brexit in a dangerous game of Westminster politics in which the party was outmanoeuvred and its interests sidelined.

While the party saw Brexit as a means of strengthening Northern Ireland’s place at the heart of the union, the special arrangements carved out in a hard Brexit deal between Boris Johnson and Brussels made it clear that higher political causes centring on the UK’s sovereignty took precedence.

The disorder seen this week has been linked to the loyalist anger over the Northern Ireland protocol, with checks on goods being shipped from Great Britain reinforcing fears over the region’s place in the union.

Loyalist frustrations were given political legitimacy when the DUP launched an official campaign to have the Northern Ireland protocol scrapped, but some have blamed the violence on a “pushback against the police” after successful crackdowns on organised crime in loyalist areas.

If Brexit happened in January, why is there violence now?

While anger has been brewing over Brexit for months, the decision by the prosecution authorities not to take action against Sinn Féin leaders who attended the funeral of a prominent republican last summer in apparent defiance of lockdown restrictions appears to have precipitated the violence.

Many believe paramilitary forces behind criminal and drug gangs are orchestrating the violence behind the scenes after police success in cracking down on their operations. The loyalist gathering at the peace gates in Belfast on Wednesday was organised via social media.

The violence has been universally condemned by politicians across the spectrum -- and internationally, by President Joe Biden for instance -- but there has been criticism about the lack of intervention in Westminster.

The Police Federation for Northern Ireland said the “shocking scenes” of Wednesday night’s violence “could set our society back years”. The federation said it thought such sights had been “consigned to history” and leaders on all sides must work urgently to end the violence.

What is the worst that could happen?

Nobody expects a return to the violence of the past but many are worried that unless this is nipped in the bud the political settlement in Northern Ireland will be eroded, putting pressure on the power-sharing arrangements.

On the longer term, there have been calls for a summit between Boris Johnson and the Irish prime minister, Micheál Martin. One of the key political challenges will be how to stand down hardline loyalists believed to be behind the unrest.

TOOLBOX to understand the Irish problem

Unionists / Loyalists: Unionism in Ireland is a political tradition on the island that professes loyalty to the unifying Crown and constitution of the United Kingdom. Loyalists support the continued existence of Northern Ireland within the United Kingdom, and oppose a united Ireland.

Republicans / Nationalists: Republicanism in Ireland is the political movement for the unity and independence of Ireland under a republic. Irish republicans view British rule in any part of Ireland as inherently illegitimate.

the DUP: the Democratic Unionist Party is a unionist conservative political party in Northern Ireland (currently led by Arlene Foster) favouring British identity.

Sinn Fein: (in English: "[We] Ourselves") is an Irish republican and democratic socialist political party active in both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. The party's ideology and central aim is the creation of a united Ireland.

Republic of Ireland (Eire) vs Northern Ireland: on 3 May 1921 (under the Government of Ireland Act 1920), the partition of Ireland was the process by which the UK government divided Ireland into two self-governing polities: Northern Ireland (which remained part of the UK) and Southern Ireland (which became an independent republic also known as "the Irish Free State" or Eire).

the Good Friday Agreement: signed on 10 April 1998, it ended most of the violence of the Troubles, a political conflict in Northern Ireland that had ensued since the late 1960s. It was a major development in the Northern Ireland peace process of the 1990s, setting up a devolved system of government Northern Ireland. The agreement was approved by voters across the island of Ireland in two referendums held on 22 May 1998 (the DUP was the only major political group in Northern Ireland to oppose it).