1) It is impossible for you to categorically state it has 'sod all' to do with Brexit, and specifically with the NI Protocol. Plenty of clued-up folks are saying that the NI Protocol has had a detrimental effect on stability in Ireland.
2) That may very well be a contributing factor.
3) I know.
4) It's being pretty widely reported this morning, 'scouring' not exactly required.
I live in Belfast.
I live in what would be classed as a loyalist area.
This isn’t Brexit causing this , a lot of people within loyalist communities feel , rightly or wrongly, that they have been left behind in the sharing of the peace dividend from the GFA.
There is still a very strong underlying current of them and us in both communities in NI , and that has never been addressed by the political situation here, as the two main parties only seem to want to drive that agenda.
Last year, at the height of Covid restrictions, a leading Sinn Fein member died. At the time of his death there were many restrictions on the number of people that could attend funerals. 24 MLA’ from Sinn Fein, politicians from the ROI and over 2,000 other people attended the funeral parade , clearly in breach of regulations.
A parade around a cemetery went ahead as part of the funeral , even through the body was not to be buried there.
Families had to wait outside the gates of the only crematorium in NI and say goodbye to their loved ones for the final time. The family members for this funeral were allowed in to crematorium. This was clear double standards, and when the PPS decided not to press charges after an investigation into all this , that was the final straw for many loyalists and they didn’t need much persuasion to kick off.
Brexit and the NI protocol isn’t causing these events , but it is certainty being used by some to keep the fires raging.
And not everything in this world has to revolve around Brexit.