As surely as the sun rises, Derry was once again gripped by violent scenes over the Easter weekend, as illegal paramilitary parades marched the streets, petrol bombs were thrown, and rioting threatened the lives of both police officers and local citizens.
This was anything but a one-off. These kinds of brutal displays are an annual eruption in one of Northern Ireland’s most socially and economically deprived areas, with a worrying number of participants (mostly male youths) born after the Good Friday Agreement was signed 25 years ago.
Rather than addressing the cause of these manifestations of violence, an ad hoc approach of plastering over the symptoms continues. The result is that a whole new generation in Northern Ireland has been left to languish in poverty and deprivation, and under the control of paramilitary organisations.
