{"id":185373,"date":"2025-06-15T03:37:13","date_gmt":"2025-06-15T03:37:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/185373\/"},"modified":"2025-06-15T03:37:13","modified_gmt":"2025-06-15T03:37:13","slug":"more-than-60-officers-injured-after-five-nights-of-disorder-in-northern-ireland-says-psni-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/185373\/","title":{"rendered":"More than 60 officers injured after five nights of disorder in Northern Ireland, says PSNI \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several Police Service of Northern Ireland<\/a> (PSNI) officers were injured in a fifth consecutive night of unrest in Co Antrim<\/a> and disorder spreading to Co Derry<\/a> and elsewhere.<\/p>\n

More than 60 officers have been injured while protecting the community from \u201congoing disorder\u201d this week, according to the PSNI. <\/p>\n

The PSNI said three males were arrested overnight, with two charged and due to appear before court on Monday. Officers have charged a 23-year-old with riot and another man in his 20s with riotous behaviour. A 14-year-old boy arrested on suspicion of riotous behaviour has been released on bail.<\/p>\n

The disorder began in Ballymena on Monday evening following a peaceful protest over an alleged sexual assault<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Two teenage boys appeared in court earlier that day charged with the attempted rape of a girl in the Co Antrim town. The 14-year-olds, who deny the offences, confirmed their names through a Romanian interpreter. <\/p>\n

On Saturday a PSNI spokesman said: \u201cDisorder and violence broke out in Portadown with officers coming under sustained attack with heavy masonry and fireworks thrown at them.\u201d He said officers used various public order tactics, including a water cannon.<\/p>\n

Police in Co Derry dealt with disorder in the Tullyally area over the course of several hours last night and early this morning. A police vehicle\u2019s front window was smashed, the spokesman said. <\/p>\n

Playing fields and property were damaged in the Killeavey Road area of Newry as a large group set a pitch and bins on fire.<\/p>\n

Stones were thrown at the windows of a hotel in the Newtownabbey area in Belfast, while a car was set on fire in the Hesketh Gardens area several kilometres away. The PSNI is treating this as a racially motivated hate crime.<\/p>\n

A group of Filipino nationals have been forced to leave their Ballymena home amid ongoing violence in the town. Video: Reuters <\/p>\n

Assistant Chief Constable Melanie Jones said it is \u201cdeeply disturbing to see such young members of our communities involved in, and in some areas driving, criminal activity\u201d.<\/p>\n

She appealed to parents and guardians to \u201cspeak to your children about the impact their behaviour is having on the safety of our local communities and the impact this could have on their lives if arrested, charged and prosecuted\u201d.<\/p>\n

The assistant chief constable outlined that the PSNI continues to have a \u201cheightened presence\u201d in local communities. <\/p>\n

She said the force is \u201cinvestigating\u201d social media posts inciting hate and disorder. <\/p>\n

The PSNI has released images of four individuals officers want to identify and interview in connection with ongoing investigations.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am asking the wider community to step forward and help us,\u201d said Ms Jones.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin has praised Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill and Deputy First Minister, Emma Pengelly for their efforts in trying to curb the violence that has erupted in several towns over the past week.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo government is immune, no country or society is immune from this type of violence that is racially motivated, let\u2019s be honest and call it out for what it is,\u201d Mr Martin told reporters in Cork on Saturday.<\/p>\n

He said he does not believe the rioters reflect the majority in their community.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it will ease. I fervently hope that it will because many of the politicians that I spoke to over the last two days have been in the communities and the vast majority of people in these communities do not want this violence. They don\u2019t want this type of activity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Martin pointed to a similarity with the Dublin riots in November 2023 when a foreign national was involved in an alleged attack on children and a teacher in Parnell Square. While the immediate concern is support for the police, he said that longer term \u201cwe need to create a better climate and culture within society\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe do need to engage with communities and hear what communities are saying in given locations and also continue our education around difference,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He said the influence of social media in spreading misinformation and \u201chatred\u201d is \u201cvery worrying.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Several Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) officers were injured in a fifth consecutive night of unrest in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":185374,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[54357,16767,1144,75955,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-185373","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-antrim","9":"tag-derry","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland-psni","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114685296175234412","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185373","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=185373"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/185373\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/185374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=185373"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=185373"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=185373"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}