Shortly before US President Joe Biden’s visit to Northern Ireland, police discovered four suspected pipe bombs in the city of Londonderry. According to the investigators, the explosive devices were found on Tuesday in a cemetery that was the scene of a march by a Catholic-Republican group the day before. They had been defused and are now being investigated, the police statement said.
On the sidelines of the unregistered rally on Monday, riots broke out in which a police car was set on fire. Stones, bottles and Molotov cocktails were also thrown at police cars during the search of the cemetery, the statement said. According to initial reports, no one was injured. The city is only called Derry by Catholic residents.
The US President was expected on Tuesday evening to mark the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement in Northern Ireland’s capital, Belfast. The 1998 peace agreement ended decades of civil war between the mostly Catholic supporters of uniting the two parts of Ireland and the predominantly Protestant supporters of Northern Ireland’s union with Britain. Outbreaks of violence have become rare. But society is still deeply divided.
