When the political temperature rises high in mainland Britain, it causes real fires in Northern Ireland with its toxic tradition of political violence.
In the wake of the stabbing of a man by a Sudanese asylum seeker in north Belfast, masked gangs set houses and shops owned or occupied by racial minorities ablaze. Muslims, Hindus and Ukrainians all became victims.
The attacks took place in Protestant districts in Belfast and towns like Portadown, suggesting that anti-Catholic sectarianism has transmuted into anti-migrant racism. Though rioters shouted anti-immigrant slogans, Northern Ireland has fewer immigrants and asylum seekers than almost any part of the UK.
‘Reopening wounds in Northern Ireland is easy enough, because past wounds have never truly closed and continue to fester’
Read Patrick Cockburn’s recent dispatch from Belfast here.
