BELFAST: About 1,200 peace campaigners gathered in Belfast yesterday for the second rally in as many days against a wave of street violence in the city, Northern Ireland’s police said.
“The peaceful silent majority need to be heard too,” said organiser Paul Currie, after the hour-long event at the gates of Belfast city hall.
Participants waved banners and played drums but were told not to bring any flags, after nights of rioting following the city council’s decision on December 3 to limit the number of days it flies the British Union flag.
Pro-British loyalists have been outraged by the decision, which they see as another concession to republicans who want Northern Ireland to unite with Ireland, although police have said the violence was fuelled by paramilitaries.
Politicians from both sides of the government in Belfast, where former republican and loyalist foes share power, have condemned the violence and said there will be no return to the sectarian unrest of the past.
“This was a call for a legal gathering of the people of Northern Ireland to show our neighbours and the world once and for all that we are not about two communities at war, but that Northern Ireland has moved on,” Currie said.
AFP
