Justice

Riots in Belfast After City Council Votes to Lower Union Jack

Tensions are never far beneath the surface in Ulster.
Cathal McNoughton/Reuters

Protests from British nationalists have become a fixture in front of Belfast City Hall in the month since the City Council voted to restrict flying the Union Jack to certain days of the year.

Now, in addition to those daytime sit-ins, the city has undergone four consecutive nights of rioting, scenes that recall Ulster's troubled past. Over 50 police officers have been injured in battles with hundred of protesters throwing bricks and Molotov cocktails.