Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
AN OUTGOING STORMONT minister has appealed for calm heads after Brexit port checks were suspended over threatening loyalist behaviour.
Edwin Poots said there is anger in the unionist community over new “disproportionate” Irish Sea regulatory and customs checks required under the terms of the divorce deal’s Northern Ireland Protocol.
Inspections at Larne and Belfast ports were suspended last night after sinister graffiti and reports of intelligence-gathering on inspectors carrying out the checks.
Lorries arriving at new inspection facilities at Belfast Port this morning were turned around and redirected by Border Force officials.
Police in Northern Ireland will hold talks with inspection agencies later.
Former agriculture minister Poots said: “It is difficult for politicians to (control) the level of anger that is in the community in respect of this and it is a time for calm heads and a time for wise behaviour, but these things have certainly created a lot of tension in the community.”
His officials are among those to be withdrawn.
There is no indication at this stage whether the threat is coming from an organised paramilitary source, rather than an individual or individuals.
The senior Democratic Unionist, who stepped down at midnight ahead of undergoing cancer surgery, added: “Ultimately the people who are doing their jobs, who are going to their work, are not their enemies.
“They are people who are simply carrying out a job, whether it is the Department of Agriculture, the local council or Food Standards Agency.”
He added: “Those people should be allowed to do their jobs in peace. Any threat against them should be withdrawn and allow people to carry on their duties.”
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme the tensions are linked to potential curbs on British Army movements across the Irish Sea and follow withdrawn EU threats to restrict vaccine supplies.
Loyalists are angry at the imposition of a new economic border between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
The suspension move came as focus on the protocol intensified following Friday’s ill-fated move by the EU to suspend aspects of its operation amid the furore over vaccine supply in the bloc.
The European Commission swiftly backtracked after facing intense criticism for attempting to hinder the free flow of movement across the Irish border in respect of vaccines.
Taoiseach Micheal Martin told RTE the safety concern is a sinister development.
He said: “I would condemn the intimidatory tactics against workers who should of course be allowed and facilitated in going about their daily work.
“It’s a very sinister and ugly development.
“Obviously, we will be doing everything we possibly can to assist and to defuse the situation.”
Poots’ Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (Daera) said that it had decided yesterday “in the interests of the wellbeing of staff to temporarily suspend physical inspections of products of animal origin at Larne and Belfast” pending further discussions with the PSNI.
Full documentary checks will continue to be carried out as usual.
Poots said: “The Protocol, as has been established, has made Great Britain a third country to Northern Ireland when we are all part of the sovereign UK.
“The EU laws that have been established to deal with materials coming in from third countries such as Brazil and Argentina is a totally disproportionate application to have that applied to Great Britain whenever Northern Ireland is part of the UK, remains part of the UK, but over 50% of our trade in foodstuffs is coming from Great Britain and the impact upon the people of Northern Ireland is immense.”
PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Mark McEwan said his officers have increased patrols at Larne Port and other points of entry in order to reassure staff and the local community.
Twelve Mid and East Antrim Borough Council staff assisting officials from Daera and UK Border Force with checks at Larne Port were withdrawn from their duties with immediate effect on Monday.
The council said it followed an “upsurge in sinister and menacing behaviour in recent weeks”.
Graffiti appeared in the area last month, referring to tensions about the Northern Ireland Protocol and describing port staff as “targets”.
There have also been a number of daubings in Belfast amid anger at the protocol, with a raft of new checks on goods arriving at ports from Great Britain introduced at the start of the year.
In addition to fears over graffiti, it is understood staff expressed concerns that individuals had been spotted taking down number plate details.
Police last month warned that discontent in loyalist communities was “growing” over the Northern Ireland Protocol, which is designed to allow the country to follow the EU’s customs rules and has caused delays at ports because of new declarations and checks, but said their feedback was not causing significant concern.
The DUP has been vociferous in opposition to the protocol’s operation.
The party’s North Antrim MP Ian Paisley condemned the threats to staff but said the protocol was “bound to cause these problems”.
“Such tactics have no place in a democracy,” he said.
“This is the sad reality of those who imposed terms on Northern Ireland without the consent of the delicate community balance which exists here. The protocol was bound to end in tears and here we have society’s structure falling apart.
“When (former Irish premier) Leo Varadkar shamefully distributed copies of border posts being blown up in Newry 30 years ago around EU Commission members, he demonstrated that violence and the threat of violence has a seat at the table.
“At the heart of progress in Northern Ireland has been cross-community consent.
“Those who thought they could impose something against the will of every unionist are now reaping the seeds of division they have sown.
“The protocol was bound to cause these problems given the triumphant approach by republicans and nationalists and the wilful ignorance that 50% of the population was opposed to the protocol.
“It’s time for the Government to step up and invoke Article 16, set it aside and let’s get back to proper trade without restrictions.”
SDLP leader Colum Eastwood said it is time for political leaders to “dial down the rhetoric”.
He said: “In Northern Ireland, words can have very dangerous consequences. So does (Michael Gove) agree with me that it is now time for all political leaders to dial down the rhetoric and deal with the actual issues that exist around this protocol?
“Of course, recognising that the Protocol is a direct consequence of Britain leaving the customs union and the single market.”
Gove responded: “It’s incumbent on all of us to calmly and purposefully seek to resolve the issues on the ground and I’m grateful to all the parties in Northern Ireland Executive, and in particular the First Minister, for the calm and purposeful way in which they’ve addressed the challenges that we share.”
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
To the editor: why wait until the 12th or 13th paragraph to say why? Lots of repetition before that.
@HonDeDeise: paid by word count.
@Steve Creaton: lineage
@HonDeDeise: I agree. Absolutely awful writing with absolutely no editing.
@HonDeDeise: Editor wants you to waste your time scrolling past ads before getting any relevant information.
@HonDeDeise: looks like it’s been updated since to reference grafetti earlier on. Thanks
@HonDeDeise: Forgetting the 5 Ws…who what when where why….always in the 1st paragraphs.
Loyalists ..the gift that keeps on giving..
DUP/UDA whip up tension among Loyalists and then use it as an excuse to pull staff from EU border checks. Same as it ever was. Hateful spiteful and corrupt to the core.
@Cathal Keeshan: Its time our Government bypassed the office of the First Minister and started communicating with the Deputy First Minister.
@Setanta Stylfox: Hah, FFG dealing with SF. Not likely!
@Brendan McCarron: They need to start communicating and creating a strong pan nationalist front to counter the toxic DUP.
Can they not see that without these people to check foodstuffs they won’t make it to the shelf? You’re only hurting your own people lads.
@Lee Brennan: your assuming they’re rational right thinking humans…. But they’re actually loyalists
@Lee Brennan: It will make it to the shelves quicker and easier now without checks.
The opposite to your suggestion.
@Nick: Yes, and they can survive off all of the new sovereignty flooding through Britain. Who needs food when you have sovereignty!
@Brendan McCarron: Does ‘take the soup’ ring any bells?
The DUP have certainly increased the tensions on the ground. The protocol is now an affront to Unionism and gain for Republicans. It did not have to be this way, economically it could have been a real win for NI but narrow political posturing has made it a lot more difficult. Again sovereign governments have agreed a position that is now challenged by threats of violence against innocent people. This is the way NI works at its worst and that’s what’s makes it special and non functioning for all the wrong reasons. The people on both sides deserve better from their narrow and bankrupt political parties(DUP/SF).
@camio55: so now SF are at fault as well?? Seriously grow up and stop playing politics. This is down directly to, and only, the DUP. They are a law unto themselves. Edwin Poots pulls staff just before he takes time off for personal reasons. If SF had been involved, I’m sure it would have been mentioned. DUP campaigned for Brexit. It backfired on them and now it’s everyone else’s fault.
@Cathal Keeshan: From the article – Sinn Fein councillor James McKeown said: “Our staff will step away from this work and will only return when we are totally satisfied it is safe and right for them to do so.
@John McG: because of intimidation
@Cathal Keeshan: His personal reasons are because he needs cancer treatment…
@camio55: is that right camio? is that why loyalists have threatened your leader Leo to not enter the north? He is just such a uniting figure isn’t he.
@camio55: This is exactly how N. Ireland was illegally created. Despite the fact that the vast majority of the people of Ireland democratically voted for Home Rule, the half crown loyalist terrorists in the 6 counties armed themselves & threatened war unless they got their own government, which the British duly acceeded to. The British offered them all 9 counties of Ulster but they refused because they wouldn’t have their inbuilt half crown loyalist majority!
Amazing these groups were still allowed to exist and have the power to do this. The psni and British government have a lot to answer for seeing as though they are on their payroll
@Emmett Currie: intimidation by a drunk with a spray can, the slightest signal is all they need
This is sabotage, pure & simple.
If food health standards are not ensured, then the entire food chain is at risk.
So, they may not just be short of biscuits or fish fingers, but many essentials if some bug gets ashore.
Recall foot & mouth, mad cow disease, & poultry virus.
The muttonheads behind these threats need to be sorted before they turn a nuisance procedure into a serious problem.
These people should be sacked. Not doing their job hiding behind safety concerns. Reality is because of brexit they now have to do what they are paid for
@john s: I think you will find many employers put safety 1st, as to I hope your own does in regard to your workplace
@D. Memery: yes and if we have learned anything over the last year it’s that the british state always puts the safety in the workplace as its number 1 priority…
Leave the North as Britain’s problem.
@Anto Harris: Or continue to leave the British as the North’s and by extension all our problem.
God forbid if we ever are united with that basket case of a country, it will destroy us.
@The Firestarter: and that’s the exact reaction they’d hoped for
Loyalists ..the gift that keeps on giving
The Ulster plantation has worked out well , hasn’t it. How lucky are we.
@Gary O’Grady: time to move on from the 1600’s perhaps ?
@Virgil: You may have missed the sarcasm. Bit early for you, is it?
50 years ago Loyslists were burning Nationalists homes – now they are intimidating workers all the while – the same as in 1971 both British & Irish government stand idly by
It’s all Leo’s fault Britain left the EU of course .
What are Police forces for
@Gerry Ryan: what are police forces for ? well it seems the PSNI are spokespeople for the angry mob and are there to warn us there is upset among loyalism regarding the protocol. what a shocker!
Where is law and order here? Same old story. Give in to thugs.
this is exactly why we want the 6 counties back. In 1922, the North’s economy was twice the size of the southern one. Today, ours is 6 times the size of the North’s. We proved the Brits wrong and showed what we could achieve despite them.
Lets finish it by seriously preparing for that border poll.
@Angela McCarthy: Please don’t make this a tribal argument between England and Ireland.
It’s a decision for the people of Northern Ireland, they are in charge of their own destiny.
@Cynical: don’t be so cynical. Tribal? that was your word. It will be a decision for all the Irish people, not just for our family in the north. England not, but successive British Governments have told us they are facilitators, but what exactly have they facilitated – democracy or fuel for more chaos?
Will they facilitate a border poll when there is clear evidence that a majority wants one? or will we likely receive the same response that Scotland is getting from Westminster?
Interesting your choice of word ‘Tribal’ since Britain has always defended its role in Ireland as been that of keeping the peace between two native tribes – and yet it was GB’s largest head-tribe who handed us all the mess we currently face while stoking loyalist passions.
@Angela McCarthy: Na, you’re grand cheers. They can keep these under-evolved phockwits for another couple of generations. We have enough of our own scrotes to worry about.
Edwin should learn that there’s a difference between the words ‘There’ and ‘Their’ .
So the products come on unchecked now?
You won’t see Martin and leo lambasting the unionist but if it was republican doing it ,it will be all out war on mary lou
If Larne and Belfast become too dangerous to use then close them and import through Dublin, Cork, Bellvue in Waterford, Derry or the many other ports in Ireland. The distribution will go to the northen vounties as it does to the western, southern and midlands counties. Drug dealers with a tin of paint will not undermine international law. The border is in the sea…and in the sea it will stay…permanently.
You couldn’t make this up. This is why we should never want the 6 counties back, they will tear themselves apart over Brexit bs like this. If we were to be handed them back tomorrow their sectarianism and bigotry would tear us apart too and forever change us for the worse.
@ros aodha: like, the southern system is working? Corruption to the core.
@Larry Doherty: I would much rather live down here than up there with all the antics going on up there. Leave those simpletons to their own devices, they will absolutely self destruct any year now…
The Loyalist implosion is imminent – leave ‘em at it…
Loyalist politicians and paramilitaries have always worked hand in hand aided now and again by members of the police such as the leading cop who gave national coverage last week to an illiterate graffiti writer in east Belfast last week. Suddenly, there was a perception of impending street disorder, seized upon gratefully by the DUP and fed back to the paramilitaries for more of the same so as to create a crisis with the protocol. Not helped by the EU blunder. Shades of the UWC strike here but their day has long gone. Welcome to the new tomorrow, DUP.
There was a whole heap of it’ll be alright on the night applied to this plan. Never underestimate the shambles that can be made of the situation post brexit.
If there ever was a time for a border poll it is now. The 6 Counties cannot be allowed to exist in a vacuum to please militant loyalism in the form of DUP/UDA
Latest polls in the north show the unionist votes have split with alliance party and TUV hoovering up votes. sinn fein are now the biggest party in the north leading by four points.
There may be trouble ahead………..let’s face the music and dance
Yip, but theres not much head room left in that Sandpit where Leo and M. Martin are stuck.
I reckon the border poll will have passed and gone by the time they and their parties take their heads back out of the sand.
have your say