SDLP Foyle MP Colum Eastwood
The Foyle MP said that both governments need to take a hands-on approach to supporting efforts to disrupt and dismantle the criminal gangs which are exercising coercive control over communities across the North.
Said Mr Eastwood: “The scenes of violence on the streets of Northern Ireland over the last week have been a disheartening reminder that, in spite of all the progress we’ve made, our peace is fragile and it has to be constantly tended to by everyone in a position of civic and political leadership.
“The last number of months has seen a marked failure to provide that leadership and to be honest with communities that feel disenfranchised and disaffected.
“The violence that we’ve all seen is a symptom of the coercive control exercised by paramilitary criminal gangs over working class communities where hope has been eroded by inopportunity and neglect.
“I am calling for a meeting of the British-Irish Intergovernmental Conference to address the deep rooted issues that have been given expression through street violence.
“Policing may be devolved to our Assembly but peace isn’t.
“All parties to the agreement need to apply themselves to this work and to ensuring that we work together in the substantial common interests of all traditions that share our island.”
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