Forty-seven police were injured while trying to separate Catholic and Protestant rioters in Belfast on Sunday.

The violence broke out during a march by a Catholic band, Northern Ireland police said on Monday.
Police fired water cannon to defend themselves from petrol bombs, fireworks, stones and bottles thrown at them by both sides in running battles lasting nearly 12 hours, police said.
The initial violence was caused by pro-British Protestant groups demonstrating against the Republican band parade, the police added.

The area had been tense for a week, since violence erupted – and seven police officers were hurt – after a Protestant band marched past a Catholic church, playing music in defiance of a ban by the parades commission, which regulates marches in the British province.
Hundreds of large fireworks and 34 petrol bombs were thrown at the police as they tried to keep the rival factions apart, Chief Superintendent George Clark said.
Clark said he had been angered and saddened by Sunday’s violence by loyalist and republican rioters, which he described as “savage, appalling and reprehensible”.
Source: Reuters
My comment:
The violence in Northern Ireland is regrettable. It must be possible for Catholics and Christians to debate issues of faith, without beating each other black and blue.
Jesus the Messiah said that His followers should rather bless their enemies, and pray for all who persecute us.
This is the correct approach.
Matthew 5:43-45
“You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’But I tell you: Love your enemies[b] and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
May I enter Heaven knowing that I have not done any harm to anyone. Will anyone take my life, just take it if you can. I am already dead to this world, and made alive by the spirit of God.
Written by Ivar





