“Clear and Growing Risk” of Security Threat from Loyalist Discontent
There is a “clear and growing risk” that discontent within the loyalist community could escalate into a “renewed threat to national security,” a British parliamentary body has said.
The British Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee said dissident Republican groups continued to pose the most serious terrorist threat in the North.
In its report for 2019-2021, the committee said the threat level in Northern Ireland remained unchanged to severe, meaning an attack was very likely.
“This has remained at the same level since 2009 and requires constant pressure from the security forces to keep it suppressed,” the committee’s 60-page report said. “The trajectory of the threat is now broadly stable after several years of gradual decline.”
He said dissident and loyalist Republican paramilitary groups “remain a feature of life.”
He said the New IRA and the Continuity IRA “continue to fuel the image of the threat,” as the threat from smaller groups, such as Arm na Poblachta and Óglaigh na hÉireann, has diminished:
He said a minority aims to destabilize the peace settlement and that their activity is causing damage to communities across the North. He pointed to a growing threat of loyalist violence:
“In recent years, loyalist paramilitary groups have been primarily involved in crime, but there is a clear and growing risk that discontent within the loyalist community, which has already given rise to episodes of violent unrest, could arise. intensify and translate into renewed national security. threatens.”
The committee said it had investigated the threat of terrorism linked to Northern Ireland in 2020 following the “reckless violence” that led to the death of journalist Lyra McKee in Derry in April 2019, to which the UK government then responded.
“The committee commended the government’s efforts to apply lessons learned from counterterrorism work across the UK to Northern Ireland, noting that it is essential that non-national security services with better Links with the community are able to provide positive interventions if they spot early involvement in terrorist groups.
The report says about a fifth of the budget of MI5, the UK’s home intelligence service, has been spent on combating terrorism linked to Northern Ireland, both in 2019 and 2020.