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Under Pressure: A report into far-right and loyalist attacks against Irish community parades/marches in Liverpool during 2012. Cairde na hÉireann, February 2013, pp. 13.

01 March 2013

This report looks at attacks by far-right and loyalist groups on Irish republican parades and marches in Liverpool during 2012. It notes the history of the Irish community in Liverpool, making clear that it has been “an integral part of the make-up of the city for over 200 years”, with “radical political activism and cultural resistance” making up part of the community’s history since Irish people settled in large numbers in Liverpool after the Irish famine in the 1840s. A resurgence in republican political activity in 1994 was accompanied by loyalist and right-wing opposition, which died down between 1996 and 2011 and then once again reared its head in 2012 when three Irish community parades/marches were “directly challenged by far-right groups and individual members of from the Loyalist/Orange community.” Marches in February (in commemoration of the death of republican volunteer Sean Phelan in 1921), July (a trade union march against racism and fascism), and October (in commemoration of the International Brigades that fought in the Spanish Civil War) met opposition from a variety of racist, nationalist and loyalist organisations who have directed racist and other abuse at marchers. The report ends with a series of recommendations, including that the police “recognise anti-Irish racism as a real issue,” that there be “proper reporting and analysis of attacks by the far-right and loyalists...by the local media,” and that the labour and trade union movement develop a shared analysis of far-right activity in Liverpool.

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