Belfast knife attack: False images, misinformation fuel anti-immigration riots
France 24 →Police in Northern Ireland Thursday prepared for further disorder, as anti-immigration riots may enter its third night. The unrest erupted after a brutal street stabbing Monday involving Sudanese national Hadi Alodid, who has been charged for attempted murder following his attack on Stephen Ogilvie. False and outdated images have been fanning the flames online, amplified by far-right voices like Tommy Robinson and Elon Musk.
Serious Riot in Streets of Belfast
Belfast, Aug. 12.—The most serious rioting that the present strike has produced filled the narrow streets in the notorious quarter last night and led to several bayonet charges by the troops. The trouble began when a mob tried to rescue two men who had been arrested by the police, and for a long time it was a tussle of the familiar Belfast type—a mob with stones against the police with clubs. There were many broken heads and smashed faces. The mob could not get enough punishment from the police. Its ferocity increased and its numbers grew continually, and troops were called from Ormeau Park, where they were camped. About 800, accompanied by four magistrates, hastened to the disturbed quarter with bayonets fixed. Every man had several rounds of ball cartridges. On arriving, they divided into detachments, each headed by a magistrate, and marched into the slums composing the Falls Road quarter. The detachments moved forward, headed by the magistrates, shouting the terms of the Riot Act. The stoning continued and the soldiers were ordered to charge bayonets. The streets were pitch dark, the mob having extinguished the lamps, and the work was most difficult. The charges were frequently resisted, and several were struck with bayonets. There were many women in the crowds. In Cullingtree Road dragoons charged with swords, from which many of the rioters received wounds. The fighting seemed general in practically every street of the quarter, which is a Nationalist one. More
Original Newspaper Page
Enlarge → What Happened Next
Irish Transport and General Workers' Union
The defeat of the strike saw a move towards a more Irish-based trade unionism, with the Irish Transport & General Workers Union (ITGWU) established the following year in response to the events of Belfast. This also helped to ensure a significant increase in trade union membership amongst northern Catholics, who before the strike had tended to be less unionised than their Protestant counterparts.
Wikipedia →Ulster Covenant
Ulster's Solemn League and Covenant was signed by nearly 500,000 people on and before 28 September 1912, in protest against the Third Home Rule Bill for Ireland introduced by the British Government in the same year. The signatories, 471,414 in all, were all against the establishment of a Home Rule parliament in Dublin.
Wikipedia →The Troubles in Ulster (1920–1922)
On The Twelfth (12 July) 1920, Ulster Unionist Party leader Edward Carson made a speech to thousands of Orangemen in Finaghy, near Belfast. Many Catholics asserted that Carson's rhetoric was partly responsible for the start of what they believed was a pogrom being carried out against Belfast's Catholic minority. During this period, more than 500 people were killed in Belfast alone, 500 interned and 23,000 people were made refugees.
Wikipedia →