New Year's threat from New IRA causes concern in Northern Ireland

LONDON

A New Year’s message from Irish dissident group the New IRA has caused concerns as it pledged to “use all means at its disposal" to end British rule in Ireland.

The threat circulating on social media since the weekend came amid tensions over uncertainties in Northern Ireland’s future due to a protocol signed with the EU as part of the UK’s Brexit agreement with the bloc.

"As we enter 2023 Ireland remains under occupation and our national sovereignty is denied by a foreign government," said the message from the New IRA, a splinter group formed after the disarmament of the Irish Republican Army (IRA).

"The Irish Republican Army will use all means at its disposal to break this bondage. Volunteers of the Irish Republican Army and its leadership are determined to spearhead this action."

The paramilitary group said the “occupation” is “promoted by the British institution known as Stormont (the Northern Ireland Assembly) and their bootlickers in the crown forces who torment our people.”

Mark H. Durkan, a Social Democratic and Labour (SDLP) lawmaker and Policing Board member, was quoted by Irishnews.com Monday as saying that "as the case for and appetite for a new Ireland gets stronger, groups like this need to be challenged on the counter-productivity of their approach."

"We need to hear their voice but there is no place for their violence," he said.

"Time and again, people here have rejected violence. We have seen its futility."

Durkan urged the New IRA to end its campaign, adding that it "does not seem to have got the message and, ironically, continue to torment our people, causing danger and disruption.”

"They have also caused death and shown no remorse whatsoever," he said.

The New IRA has said it was responsible for a bomb attack on a police patrol in County Tyrone last November.

Two local police officers escaped unharmed when a bomb exploded by their vehicle in Strabane on Nov. 17.

Neither officer was injured in the explosion, which happened in the Mount Carmel Heights area of the town.

The threat from the group came amid a political impasse in the country as the Irish nationalist Sinn Fein and loyalists Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) failed to reach an agreement to form a new Executive since the latest election on May 5.

Winning the most seats in a historic result, Sinn Fein nominated its leader in Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill, as First Minister, but the DUP refused to nominate a deputy and vowed not to do so until the Northern Ireland Protocol is scrapped.

The protocol aligns Northern Ireland with the EU’s single market to avoid a hard border in the island of Ireland but the unionists and the central UK government have argued that it is not operable as it creates a customs border inside the UK.