One of Northern Ireland’s top police officers has accused the Ulster Defence Association – supposedly on ceasefire – of “being on a power trip” after its violent invasion of a County Antrim town.
Up to 100 members of the UDA’s south-east Antrim brigade invaded an area of Larne, a port town on the east Antrim coast, and attacked homes and police officers.
The incident on Sunday night, which involved houses being wrecked and police patrols coming under fire from a mob, prompted calls for the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), Matt Baggott, to review the status of the UDA ceasefire.
Assistant Chief Constable George Hamilton said on Monday that this faction of the UDA “seem to want to have some power or legitimacy within communities and it’s very important that the community themselves don’t do anything to give legitimacy to these groups. There are ways of dealing with tensions and with difficulties within communities.”
He drew a link between the recent arrest of alleged UDA figures in the south-east Antrim area and the mass incursion into Larne.
“Within the last week we actually arrested six people who would be connected to this grouping. They have been charged with things such as threats to kill and intimidation, criminal damage and so on,” he said.
One police officer was injured and a number of homes were damaged, one completely destroyed, during the disturbances in Larne late on Sunday night.
Hamilton also defended his officers against charges that they had reacted too slowly to reports of a mass gathering of UDA members in nearby Carrickfergus, also on the east Antrim coast, about an hour before they moved on into Larne.
“In a town the size of Larne, I think the number of police officers that we had available to deploy very quickly to that scenario last night was proportionate,” he said.
“If you were the victim of that last night, you probably wouldn’t see it that way, but of course resources are not endless.”
Twenty-five riot squad officers were deployed to quell the violence and extra police resources have been put into the town to cope with any further trouble.
Oliver McMullan, the Sinn Féin MLA for East Antrim, said he would be asking for a report on the police response to the incident as he claimed he had warned them such an attack was imminent.
“Some of the victims of last night’s attacks have already been attacked on more than one occasion,” he said.
McMullan added: “I acknowledge the courage and the efforts of the police officers injured in an effort to prevent an attack on one of the homes.
“However, it’s worrying that police were unable to apprehend any of the 70 to 100-strong mob involved in the attacks.”
Until now the UDA has been relatively inactive and in some areas its members have been involved in cross-community projects alongside former republican enemies in recent years.
However, the disorder in Larne is being linked to a local turf war between different factions of the organisation.
The UDA’s central body in south-east Antrim is thought to have invaded the town on Sunday to reassert its authority there.
The cross-community Alliance party, which has come under physical attack in south-east Antrim over the union flag dispute in Belfast, said the PSNI’s statement put a question mark over the status of the UDA ceasefire.
Stewart Dickson, the Alliance MLA for East Antrim, said: “I am deeply concerned by the reports from the PSNI that the south-east Antrim UDA were responsible for this trouble.
“If this is correct, it raises serious questions about the status of this paramilitary group. The chief constable must look into this matter.”
Roy Beggs, the Ulster Unionist MLA for East Antrim, said those behind the attacks were involved in “serious organised crime”.
He added: “”This is a challenge to British law-and-order. Do those who are orchestrating and carrying out these attacks think they are above the law?”
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