Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill calls on Ballymena attacks to stop
First Minister Michelle O'Neill has said attacks on families across Northern Ireland and rioting in Ballymena are "abhorrent and must stop immediately".Petrol bombs, masonry and fireworks were thrown at police on Tuesday night, in a second night of serious disorder the County Antrim town of Ballymena.The disorder began on Monday after a peaceful protest over an alleged sexual assault in the County Antrim town.Thirty-two police officers have been injured.
O'Neill said those responsible "bring nothing to our communities but hatred, fear and division".She added: "No-one, now or ever, should feel the need to place a sticker on their door to identify their ethnicity just to avoid being targeted."The Sinn Féin deputy leader said she had spoken to the chief constable "and urged him to ensure those responsible for orchestrating and perpetuating these crimes are held fully to account".
Ministers appeal for calm
In a joint statement, politicians in the Northern Ireland Executive appealed for calm.The statement on behalf of ministers from Sinn Féin, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), Alliance Party and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) said: "We strongly condemn the racially motivated violence witnessed in recent days and make an urgent appeal for calm across society"."The alleged serious sexual assault reported on 7 June in Ballymena was appalling and our collective thoughts are with the victim and their loved ones at this deeply traumatic time."It is paramount that the justice process is now allowed to take its course so that this heinous crime can be robustly investigated."Those weaponising the situation in order to sow racial tensions do not care about seeing justice and have nothing to offer their communities but division and disorder."
DUP North Antrim assembly member Paul Frew said he fears someone will be killed in Ballymena if the violence continues.Frew said the disorder is "drowning out the strong and sincere sympathies for victims of sexual violence".The UUP said there is no justification for the "mayhem" that has happened over the last two nights and street violence is not a "legitimate" way to express concerns over the alleged sexual assault.Party leader Mike Nesbitt said: "My thoughts are with those who have lost their homes and the greater number who are feeling intimidated and unwelcome."I also stand in solidarity with the blue lights, not just the PSNI but also the Fire and Rescue Service, who have had to deal with a number of house fires."
'Underlying tensions'
Speaking to BBC Newsline on Tuesday, North Antrim MP Jim Allister said underlying tensions in Ballymena had been "there for a long time" because there was "an oversubscription of migrants who had been placed there".When asked about what evidence he was drawing on, the Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) said the last time he canvassed a street in the area with 50 houses, he came "upon five local, if I can call them that, residents of Ballymena".After Tuesday night's violence, he posted on social media: "Tonight's further senseless violence in Ballymena is helping no cause, just destroying our own town and getting young men criminal records. Stop it."SDLP leader Claire Hanna responded by saying "some politicians are choosing to explain away" episodes of violence."We are hearing words of condemnation which are, at best insincere, and many people would describe as weaselly," she added."You can choose each day when you have a mandate and a platform to get up and try and solve problems or you can choose to exploit them, you can choose to try to calm tensions or you can try and fan them."Justice Minister Naomi Long said she was appalled by the "disturbing scenes", while Sinn Féin's Philip McGuigan, who represents the North Antrim constituency, appealed for calm and urged political leaders to "use measured language".
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Reuters
17 minutes ago
- Reuters
Britain ready to implement US tariff deal, trade minister says
LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) - Britain is ready to implement its side of a tariff deal with the United States and is hopeful for a proclamation from U.S. President Donald Trump to put the agreement into effect in the coming days, trade minister Jonathan Reynolds said on Thursday. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Trump on May 8 agreed to reduce tariffs on UK imports of cars and steel to the U.S., with Britain agreeing to lower tariffs on beef and ethanol, but implementation of the deal has been delayed. Reynolds met U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick on Tuesday and discussed the implementation of the deal. Asked on Thursday if there would be an update by the end of the week, Reynolds said he was "very hopeful". "We're ready to go, and as soon as the president and the White House are ready to go on their side, we'll implement (our) part of the deal," Reynolds told reporters. Reynolds said he would issue a government order known as a statutory instrument to implement the changes to reciprocal tariffs. Officials said that the update on implementation was likely to come early next week. One of the details to be ironed out before the deal can be implemented is steel quotas. Reynolds added that he wanted to make sure the tariff reductions applied to every bit of the UK steel industry, as the U.S. finalises quotas that will place supply chain requirements on British steel exports to the United States. The bioethanol industry has warned its future is under threat, with Associated British Foods (ABF.L), opens new tab deciding on the fate of a plant later this month. Reynolds acknowledged the deal could increase competition but said the industry was already struggling. "We are very sensitive to the ethanol issue... (but) they're losing a lot of money already," Reynolds said, adding regulatory tweaks could help, but that for financial support: "any intervention I make has to be a clear route to profitability." "So there are much wider issues for these partners than just the U.S. trade deal."
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
US poised to lower tariffs on British cars within days, UK minister indicates
The United States is poised to start lowering its tariffs on some British products within days, the UK trade secretary has indicated. Jonathan Reynolds told reporters the US was expected to slash its tariffs on British cars 'very soon' after 'a very significant week' of talks. Reynolds and Keir Starmer met Howard Lutnick, the US commerce secretary, for talks on Tuesday evening where they raised the implementation of the US-UK trade deal. Reynolds said: 'Secretary Lutnick and I, and the prime minister, talked specifically about the execution of the automotive tariff reduction … which is part of our deal. I'm hoping to be able to update you all on that very soon.' Asked whether he expected the tariff reductions to begin this week, he said: 'I'm very hopeful. It was a specific area of conversation on Tuesday in that bilateral meeting. We are ready to go on our side … as soon as the president and White House are able to on their side.' After the meeting Lutnick posted on X that trade quotas on British cars and American beef and ethanol would be implemented 'within days'. Peter Mandelson, the UK ambassador to Washington, raised the implementation of the deal again at a meeting with Donald Trump on Wednesday. 'I assured the president that our markets were ready to receive new quotas of US goods and that the UK looked forward to the deal's swift implementation,' Mandelson said in a statement after the meeting. Having negotiated trade agreements with the US, the EU and India, ministers are focused on finalising a £1.6bn deal with the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The Guardian reported last month that the deal, which will boost trade with countries including Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, was nearing completion and was likely to draw backlash over human rights and modern slavery concerns. Reynolds confirmed that the deal with the GCC would not contain legally binding commitments on labour or environmental standards but said the UK needed to strike agreements with countries 'different to ourselves'. 'There will be chapters in that agreement, they've already been negotiated on environmental standards, on labour standards. They're not legally binding, you don't have that in trade deals, but it's important you have that ethos and that approach reflected,' he said. 'What this country needs to be is the best connector market in the world and that will require, after leaving the European Union, trade agreements with some places that are not western democracies. 'We've got to recognise that not only is there a commercial interest in us being involved in those places, British engagement is positive. There are countries in the Gulf who are different to ourselves, but have been the areas where there's been some more significant change in the last decade.' Reynolds also shared an anecdote about his first WhatsApp message to Lutnick, which was sent shortly after he was confirmed as US commerce secretary in February. 'Then begins what I can only describe as a cross-Whitehall process to write, collectively with collective agreement, a WhatsApp message to the United States. Now that was as bad as it sounds – literally something no human being would send or be able to understand,' he said. 'The whole of the British state at its finest and most efficient way, gets together, starts agreeing on every sentence, every word, and it comes through to me. By this time, it's about 10 o'clock at night, and Claire [Reynolds] and I are driving back to Stalybridge together. I get the message, and I think it needs a little bit of work … but I go, the whole of the government's been engaged in this so fair enough, we send it off.' 'Howard just rings me straight back … and he says, 'Johnny, I got your message. I don't know what it means.'
BreakingNews.ie
an hour ago
- BreakingNews.ie
1989 police probe into murder of John Devine ‘seriously defective'
The 1989 police investigation into the murder of John Devine was 'seriously defective', Northern Ireland's Police Ombudsman has found. The 37-year-old was murdered by loyalists on Fallswater Street in west Belfast on July 23rd, 1989. Advertisement The father-of-three died after armed men entered his home and shot him a number of times at close range. Police Ombudsman Marie Anderson has highlighted a 'series of failures' in the investigation. These include that a man prosecuted for Mr Devine's murder almost three decades later should have been arrested and interviewed as a suspect at the time. Mrs Anderson's report is also critical of the then police force, the RUC's wider suspect and arrest strategy, which she found resulted in police taking action against only two people on a list of 36 persons of interest, despite intelligence and other information which linked individuals to the murder. Advertisement The report identifies that house-to-house and witness inquiries were not adequately pursued and led to missed opportunities to gather evidence which may have assisted police to identify suspects or open up lines of inquiry, and that all available forensic opportunities were not fully exploited. The investigation also found no evidence that the RUC alerted Mr Devine to the fact that his date of birth had been linked to the name John Devine, in a document found in two separate loyalist paramilitary intelligence caches. Although the document contained a different address and photo, the police did not consider the potential risk presented to Mr Devine, including whether a 'threat to life' warning was appropriate. Police Ombudsman for Northern Ireland Marie Anderson said she believed the family of John Devine had been 'failed' by police (Liam McBurney/PA) 'Given the available evidence and other information gathered during my investigation, I consider the original RUC investigation to be seriously defective, and not capable of leading to the identification of those responsible,' she said. Advertisement Ms Anderson acknowledged that the RUC investigation of the murder was conducted at a time when policing resources in Troubles-related incidents were stretched and under significant pressure in a year when 81 people died. She also found that there was no specific intelligence available to police that, if acted upon, could have prevented the murder of Mr Devine. The Ombudsman concluded that Mr Devine was the victim of a campaign of sectarian violence mounted against the nationalist community. 'Loyalist paramilitaries alone were responsible for his murder,' she said. Advertisement 'Given the significant failings in the RUC investigation, I believe that Mr Devine's family were failed by police in their search for the truth regarding the perpetration of his murder.' Solicitor Padraig O Muirigh (Rebecca Black/PA) Solicitor Padraig O Muirigh, who acts for Mr Devine's family, said they welcome the findings of the Ombudsmans' report. 'Mrs Anderson has concluded that the failings in the RUC investigation of Mr Devine's murder were so fundamental that the murder investigation was 'incapable of detecting potential offenders and supporting a prosecution',' he said. 'There were a litany of serious deficiencies identified in the Police Ombudsman investigation including a failure of RUC Special Branch to disseminate intelligence to the police investigation team, the failure to arrest and interview key suspects and multiple forensic shortcomings. Advertisement 'These findings are a damning indictment of the RUC investigation into John Devine's murder. 'The breadth and nature of these failings cannot be explained by mere incompetence. 'The Devine family have a long-held view that those involved in the murder were protected from prosecution by the RUC and that the security forces colluded with loyalist paramilitaries. 'That view has been reinforced by these findings. The Devine family commend Mrs Anderson and her staff for the diligent investigation they have conducted.'
