The World Briefly

February 24, 2023

The Disrupters

Northern Ireland

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Northern Irish police arrested a fourth individual Friday in relation to the shooting of an off-duty police officer, an attack suspected to have involved dissident republican paramilitaries and which has revived memories of Northern Ireland’s bloody past, the BBC reported.

On Wednesday night, unknown gunmen shot Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell at point-blank range in the city of Omagh. Authorities said Caldwell is stable but remains in a critical condition.

Police are questioning four men between the ages of 22 and 47 in connection with the attack, three having been arrested on Thursday. No one has claimed responsibility, but police officials believe the dissident group, the New Irish Republican Army (IRA), is responsible for the attack.

The last time any of the IRA factions killed a Northern Ireland police officer was in 2011, also in Omagh, while the town was also the target of a bomb blast in 1998 that killed 29 people, an attack carried out in the hope of wrecking that year’s Good Friday Agreement, Politico noted.

Politicians and leaders across the United Kingdom and Ireland of all parties strongly condemned Wednesday’s attack as “terrorist” and “shameful.”

Many Northern Irish also expressed horror at the shooting that comes more than a month before the 25th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement that ended decades of violence in the region – a period known as the Troubles.

At the time, the Provisional IRA fought to end British rule of the region and loyalist paramilitaries battled to remain part of the UK.

This week’s shooting also came as the UK and the European Union continue to negotiate an agreement on Brexit trade regulations for Northern Ireland, which some campaigners fear would destabilize the province, where local politics has been paralyzed since May of last year.

This story originally appeared in the February 24, 2023 newsletter, When Spring Comes.