In the Northern Irish city of Derry, participants of a march on Easter Monday pelted an armored police vehicle with Molotov cocktails. That said a police spokesperson.
It was a march of members of republican groups. The demonstration was not previously reported to the authorities. The Northern Ireland police had already warned in recent days of violence against officers on Easter Monday. On April 10, Northern Ireland commemorates the signing of the Good Friday Agreement between London and Dublin, which ended years of deadly violence in the region exactly 25 years ago. The symbolic birthday also falls on Easter Monday, a traditional day of protest for the Irish Republicans, in reference to the Easter Rising of 1916.
Rivalries between Catholic nationalist paramilitaries (grouped under the Irish Republican Army, IRA) and Protestant loyalists have led to much bloodshed in Northern Ireland since the 1960s. In all, more than 3,500 people were killed and 40,000 injured. The Good Friday Agreement mandated the disarmament of paramilitary groups on both sides, reform of the police force and a power-sharing within the Irish government of unionists and nationalists.
Although political tensions between the two parties have remained high in recent years, serious violence has rarely erupted. US President Joe Biden is expected in Belfast on Tuesday evening to celebrate the peace agreement and the progress made since then.
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