Police attacked during fourth night of unrest in Northern Ireland
Police were attacked during a fourth consecutive night of trouble in Northern Ireland.
Disorder switched from Co Antrim to Co Armagh where rioters clashed with PSNI public order units in Portadown.
It followed an anti-immigration rally in the town centre which was attended by hundreds of people that had passed off without incident.
A police helicopter hovered low over the town centre during a large security operation. But as people left town after the demonstration, some clashed with police.
Masonry was thrown at officers and there was a number of arrests.
By contrast, Ballymena, the focus of much of the trouble earlier this week, appeared to be relatively quiet.
Last night 80 police officers from Police Scotland arrived in Northern Ireland. They were called in under a mechanism called Mutual Aid which allows UK police forces to support one another.
The Scottish police officers will fill in to allow PSNI officers to get some rest.
So far, 41 PSNI officers have been injured and there has been 15 arrests.
More arrests have been promised as police trawl CCTV and social media footage.
Yesterday a judge warned those convicted of offences should expect to be dealt with "robustly" by the courts.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher had said he wants to see lengthy custodial sentences as a deterrent.
Mr Boutcher has warned that the cost of policing the rioting could run to several million pounds if it were to continue for much longer.
He said that was money that would have to come from public finances.
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Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
Séamas O'Reilly: Ballymena violence is the result of politics based on scapegoating any ‘other'
Ballymena is burning. Since Monday, protesters have descended on various streets in the Antrim town, following an alleged sexual assault of a girl. Two 14-year-old boys have been charged with attempted rape, both presumed to be of migrant origin as they used a Romanian interpreter in court. Their solicitor said they would be denying the charges. A peaceful vigil for the girl, commandeered by local agitators, spilled into full-on rioting – or, to use the odd euphemism so often deployed in the statelet I grew up in, 'disturbances'. Over the course of the next few nights, several migrant homes were attacked and destroyed, with dozens of PSNI officers assaulted and injured, and fulminating rhetoric from those protesting broadcast on social media, to anyone who'd listen. The rioters' response to news of the alleged assault was attacking homes of any and all migrants or 'non-locals' they could find. One was that of a Filipino family, the dad of whom worked for Wrightbus and came back from his shift to find his house in flames. Assembly member Sian Berry told Stormont of a family-of-three who were forced to barricade themselves in their attic as men 'rampaged' downstairs. Crowds gather in front of a line of riot police and vans in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, as people protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Peter Morrison) Reaction has been swift and furious, with politicians and community leaders from all sides condemning the violence. Some did this, however, with a few more caveats than others. North Antrim MP Jim Allister said the violence was 'very distressing' and 'senseless' but added that the context for the violence was that there had been 'significant demographic change in the area' because of 'unfettered immigration'. Demographic change is, of course, a relative concept, but even its most gymnastic description would be hard to tally with this part of the world. The Northern Irish Assembly's figures indicate that net migration from other countries to Northern Ireland in the past 22 years is around 62,000 people. Around 3% of Northern Ireland's population currently belong to any ethnic minority at all. Indeed, 'unfettered immigration' seems a somewhat odd descriptor for the Mid and East Antrim council area, in which Ballymena is situated, which has seen a net total of fewer than 5,000 international migrants settle there, this century. Of course, any such change in population will be noticed by those with eyes to see it. Which is to say: those who oppose anyone who's different, in any way, being anywhere near them. It's easy, therefore, to dismiss all of what is happening in Antrim right now as racist thuggery. Thankfully, it's not just easy to do this, but correct. A protester stokes a barricade fire in Ballymena, Northern Ireland, as people protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town, Wednesday, June 11, 2025. To their credit, the PSNI have been clear-cut on this point, with the chair of their police federation Liam Kelly describing the violence as 'mindless, unacceptable and feral' and the actions of the rioters as 'a pogrom'. There is no interpretation of these acts, no nuance or context that can be added, that points in any other direction. Any talk of 'simmering tensions' and 'local anger' merely gets us away from the point at hand; the tension and anger is from people who believe all outsiders should be terrorised and killed, and we owe them, and their concerns, nothing but clear-eyed disgust. None of this is new. I'm old enough to remember scenes of Catholics being ousted from their homes in Antrim, primarily because it still happens all the time. Last July, the family of Jessy Clark, a nine-year-old boy with multiple serious disabilities, were allocated a newbuild bungalow in the Ballycraigy estate in Antrim town. The home was purpose-built to provide for Jessy's medical needs, allowing him the facility to bathe and use his wheelchair, freedoms he'd been denied in the hospital bed he'd been living in for years. Shortly before the family were due to move in, the house was attacked with bricks and paint bombs. Soon its boarded-up windows featured graffiti of crosshairs, and slogans declared that all such housing was for 'locals only'. The LVF-affiliated group responsible for this were implicated in a several other attacks in the area, driving eight African families out of their homes in the few weeks previous. Deducing this took little by way of detective work, since the group posted laminated signs around the area declaring 'No Undesirables… No Multiculturalism' and warnings to 'keyboard warriors' that their home might be next. Police officers on Clonavon Road in Ballymena following a second night of violence in Ballymena, during a protest over an alleged sexual assault in the Co Antrim town. Multiple cars and properties were set on fire in Ballymena while rioters hurled petrol bombs, fireworks and masonry at police officers. What we're seeing now in Ballymena is the downstream effect of a political project based on scapegoating any 'other' who looks, speaks or prays differently. It is not new, no matter how much of it is broadcast online or egged on by bad actors on social media. MLAs from across Northern Ireland have criticised DUP MLA Gordon Lyons, who confirmed that displaced Ballymena migrants had been housed in Larne Leisure Centre, hours before that location was set alight by a mob. Lyons says the information was in the public domain when he put it on social, and had been confirmed by the local council, but has not elaborated on why he felt the need to specify that he had not been consulted on this decision. Lyons, for those who don't know - and may now scarcely believe it - is Northern Ireland's Communities Minister. One might be tempted to imagine any other situation in which innocent people were rehoused for, say, flooding, fire, or some other natural disaster, only for their Community Minister to refer to them not as constituents, or traumatised people in fear for their lives, but as "individuals", housed only "temporarily", and making sure to point out that he and his party colleagues had no part in giving them shelter. I grew up around this hoary old routine; sectarian prejudice dressed up with talk about jobs, housing or religious identity, now being wheeled out in terms of law and order, grotesquely weaponizing an awful alleged crime to bring brickbats and firebombs to the homes of peaceful, terrified foreigners. The central perversity of treating these people as anything other than racist thugs is only more transparent in Ballymena because they have so few migrants that any other excuse is patently absurd. It's the same skit we've seen at play for decades, the same justification as in Southport and Dublin and East Belfast before, and will see again for as long as these people have hate in their hearts, an X account, and a brick at arm's reach. We are not witness to a disturbance, but a pogrom. It behoves us to say so, loud and clear. Read More Séamas O'Reilly: Many of the tropes of standard Irishness are not universally applied both sides of the border
Irish Examiner
an hour ago
- Irish Examiner
How a dog called Fern solved the mystery of where Cork woman Tina Satchwell had been hidden
When Fern made a positive detection for the presence of human remains in the home of Richard and Tina Satchwell, the dog helped unravel the mystery of where the missing woman had been hidden for more than six years. After Richard Satchwell was sentenced to life in prison for the 2017 murder of his wife, the role of Fern in the case and the absence of a cadaver dog in An Garda Síochána's dog unit has raised hackles, led to soundbites and sparked debate on why the Irish force had to rely on the PSNI's only cadaver dog. Use of Fern in October 2023 for the search of Ms Satchwell's Youghal home was not the only time the services of a cadaver dog were requested by gardaí during the probe into her disappearance. The first time was in 2018, when Ronnie, a dog from Britain, was brought to Castlemartyr for a woodland search after information led gardaí to concentrate on the area. Mick Swindells has worked on a number of other high-profile cases in Ireland, including a search of the Slieve Bloom mountains for Fiona Pender in 2014. Ronnie's handler, Mick Swindells, a former British police officer, recalls staying in Garryvoe during the 2018 search, and says the approach came from gardaí because of his work with the Independent Commission for the Location of Victims' Remains, set up to find the bodies of people murdered and secretly buried by republicans during the Troubles. He has worked on a number of other high-profile cases in Ireland, including a search of the Slieve Bloom mountains for Fiona Pender in 2014. She has been missing since 1996 and her case was recently upgraded to a murder investigation. He became involved in human remains detection in 1992 when working with the dogs section in Lancashire police. He has handled five cadaver dogs in his career, but also trained dogs in Britain as well as in the Malaysian and Spanish fire services, and Spanish police. He pointed out training dogs to find human remains in water is different to training them to find buried remains 'because they can smell scent coming through the water'. For land searches, probes are used to prod the ground to release any odours which could indicate if human remains are buried in the area. He stressed, however, that the manner of a person's death can have an impact on the scent, explaining: 'Somebody who has been poisoned will decompose differently to somebody who has shot or stabbed, if there is trauma. "Indeed, the size of a person and the type of soil they have been put in also changes decomposition — also, if there were clothes, or they were wrapped in a shower curtain or carpet or that kind of thing.' He said in most cases, people do not have time to bury remains very deep — although he acknowledged cases like the Tina Satchwell case were different. During the recent trial, the jury heard her body had been buried unusually deep for a 'clandestine burial', with 84cm depth to the bottom of the burial site. 'He [Satchwell] was in his own house so he controlled the environment, whereas when you are burying bodies in woods … even the IRA didn't bury bodies deep and they had control of the areas. In his own house, he could take his time, he wasn't going to be disturbed,' Mr Swindells said. In his work, cadaver dogs are trained on pigs. He explains why: 'If you train a dog to find Semtex and you hide a block of Semtex, it won't change. But, obviously, a dead body evolves and is always changing. So we have to try to train the dog to find a body from, for example, one day after death to 25 years after death when it is just pure skeletal. So you have to train the dog on every aspect of the decomposition and the only way you can do that is by using pigs. It is similar decomposition.' A pig dressed in a coat and placed in a grave. Mick Swindells says the coat has been put on the pig to simulate a real concealment, for the purpose of training a cadaver dog. He says pigs used for the purpose of training dogs to find human remains are buried in the ground for many years. 'We had a site in the UK where we buried pigs in 1992 and every so often we went back there with dogs if we are looking at a really old case to refresh them. Pigs are the closest thing to human because they are omnivores — pigs eat meat and vegetables the same as we do. They have the same skin type — the same number of layers of skin as we do, the same digestive system as we do.' He says the normal police course for training dogs to find human remains is eight weeks: 'The basic course is eight weeks but the dog is always learning after that.' The Search and Rescue Dog Association Ireland (North) currently has four specially trained cadaver dogs in Northern Ireland. The association's Clair O'Connor says: 'We would use archaeological bone or human blood in training. We get blood from donors.' The association, which was founded in 1978 by Cork-born Dr Neil Powell, began working in the area of human remains detection in the 1990s, after being tasked to a search for two cousins who drowned in a lake. Wexford-based Rachell Morris owns K9 Detect and Find Ireland. She and Clair O'Connor both say they have had requests to aid An Garda Síochána over the years with searches. 13/06/'25 Gardaí bring a cadaver dog into a house on Monastery Walk, Clondalkin, where they are continuing their search in the investigation into the death of American woman, Annie McCarrick, who disappeared in 1993. Picture: Colin Keegan/ Collins However, on Monday, Garda Commissioner Drew Harris said there were no plans at the moment to acquire a cadaver dog for the force . He described such a dog as a very specialised resource which is not out every day working, as is the case for drugs, firearms or money dogs. He also said a cadaver dog has only been used by the force three times in the seven years he has been commissioner. It emerged at Tuesday afternoon's meeting of the Oireachtas justice committee that a cadaver dog was used in the search for Kerry farmer Mike Gaine in the early weeks of his disappearance. Mick Swindells believes the addition of a cadaver dog to An Garda Síochána's existing dog unit would not be a big cost. 'If you train them to forensics and blood and semen also, you are not restricting it to murders because you have got assault cases, rape cases, that they can be used for as well.' He rejected minister for justice Jim O'Callaghan's assertion that the working life of a cadaver dog was just three years. He said police dogs operate until they are no longer fit enough to work, with many having a work life of up to seven years, typically retiring at about nine years old. This was echoed by Clair O'Connor, who said: 'All of our search dogs would work until they are aged eight to 10 years old.' A Garda spokeswoman confirmed the force has never had its own cadaver dog. She said there were 28 dogs attached to the Garda Dog Unit, inclusive of the Southern and North Western Dog Units. There are currently four dogs in training. The statement said: 'The Garda Dog Unit has dogs trained in three distinct disciplines, namely general purpose, drugs/cash/firearms detection, and explosive detection. Dogs are trained in one discipline.' In relation to cadaver dogs, the statement said: 'The operational demand for victim recovery dogs is currently sufficiently provided for through third-party contractors or through mutual assistance with the Police Service of Northern Ireland with whom An Garda Síochána has excellent working relations.' Read More Review of Tina Satchwell case to include if cadaver dog should have been used in 2017 search — Harris
RTÉ News
2 hours ago
- RTÉ News
'Week of shame' in Northern Ireland as disorder continues
Police have come under attack for a fifth consecutive night in Northern Ireland, in what has been dubbed a "week of shame" for the region. Petrol bombs were thrown at riot police deployed in Portadown last night after a senior officer said there would be a "scaled up" policing presence across Northern Ireland in anticipation of further disorder over the weekend. Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said the mobilisation, which would include officers sent over from Scotland, was "to reassure our communities and protect our streets". Disorder started in Ballymena on Monday after an alleged sexual assault of a girl in the Co Antrim town at the weekend, and continued throughout the week. The unrest and riotous behaviour spread to other towns including Larne, Belfast and Coleraine. A number of homes were targeted, and the Northern Ireland Housing Executive has said about 50 households have received assistance across the week, and 14 families provided with emergency accommodation. The focus of the violence shifted to Portadown on Thursday and continued yesterday - although at a lower intensity than scenes observed earlier in the week. Sixty-three police officers have been injured in the sustained disorder which led political leaders to call for calm during a meeting of the British Irish Council in Newcastle, Co Down. First Minister Michelle O'Neill said everyone is condemning the disorder and calling for it to stop. "What we have seen over the last four days has been devastation, has been horrific for those people targeted - these are women and children, these are families, at the brunt of racist, violent attacks, and it is wrong on every level," she said. "The whole of the Executive is united on that front," she added. Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly described a "difficult time for Northern Ireland" with "disgraceful scenes of violent disorder", and said her thoughts are with the residents of the areas affected. Additional police officers from Scotland will support the Police Service of Northern Ireland after a mutual aid request. Scottish First Minister John Swinney said it was an illustration of how cooperation between police forces is "absolutely essential". While disorder in Ballymena raged across Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday night, it appeared to have abated on Thursday. However, there was still disorder in Portadown. There have also been incidents in other towns, including the burning of Larne Leisure Centre on Wednesday and an arson attack on a house in Coleraine in the early hours of this morning from which a man and woman, and four young children escaped. It is being treated by police as arson with a racially motivated hate element. Twenty-two police officers were injured in overnight disorder in Portadown after they came under sustained attack with heavy masonry, fireworks and beer kegs in the Co Armagh town on Thursday. A woman in her 50s and a man in his 30s were arrested on suspicion of riotous behaviour and other offences in connection with the disorder in Portadown. There was also sporadic disorder elsewhere in Northern Ireland on Thursday night, following mainly peaceful protests, including in the Templemore Avenue area of east Belfast, where bricks were thrown through the windows of two houses in Avoniel Road in what police have called a racially motivated attack. A small fire at the Manse Road roundabout in Newtownabbey was also reported, and anti-immigration hate graffiti is being investigated in Newtownards. Meanwhile, a house fire in the Mount Street area of Coleraine which led to the evacuation of a family with three young children is being treated as deliberate and a racially motivated hate crime. Police Federation chairman Liam Kelly said it has been "a week of shame with appalling levels of unrest in towns and cities". "Burning people out of their homes, attacking a leisure centre, and the specific targeting of individuals and property fuelled by overt racism and prejudice, is totally deplorable," he said. "Yet again, our overstretched police officers have also been attacked with petrol bombs, bricks and fireworks as they sought to keep people safe and maintain law and order. "They have held the line with great courage and professionalism and are owed a debt of gratitude by this community," he added. "They went to the aid of vulnerable people, have prevented further savage attacks and have undoubtedly saved lives," he said. Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Jon Boutcher warned on Thursday that his officers would be coming after the "bigots and racists" behind the disorder.
