Irish Loyalists claim responsibility for terror attack in Northern Ireland

In the terror attack, armed and masked men claiming to be Irish Loyalists seized a double-decker bus yesterday, Monday 1 November. They then, at gunpoint, forced the driver from the empty bus before igniting it.

The BBC in Northern Ireland collected claims from Irish loyalists claiming responsibility for the terror attack. They demanded the inaction of their government this November 1, the deadline to ensure substantial changes to the Northern Ireland protocol. The ruling Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) had pledged a withdrawal from parliament if these changes were not made.

Nichola Mallon, infrastructure minister for Stormont, told the Nolan Show on BBC Radio Ulster, “Two masked Irish Loyalists entered the bus. They held the driver, a man, at gunpoint, said something about the Northern Ireland protocol and poured some kind of flammable liquid all over the vehicle. They forced the driver out of the double-decker bus, and set it on fire, luckily, the driver escaped unharmed.”

The attack, which is reminiscent of the violence that the streets of Derry and Belfast saw last Easter, has been deeply criticized by all parties – including the DUP, which declared that ‘violence and terrorism do nothing to remove the protocol of North Ireland”. The Irish Loyalists need to keep to the peace treaty. Life does not need to go back to how it used to be.

Unionist Ulster Party leader Doug Beattie called the terror attack “completely miserable, disappointing, and stupid,” while Parliamentary Secretary Louise Haigh said it was “absolutely regrettable.”

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