Published by Global Banking & Finance Review®
Posted on June 12, 2025
2 min readLast updated: January 23, 2026
Add as preferred source on GoogleViolence in Northern Ireland spreads to Portadown, with police attacked amid anti-immigrant protests following the arrest of two teenagers.
PORTADOWN, Northern Ireland (Reuters) -Rioters attacked police with petrol bombs, rocks and fireworks in the Northern Irish town of Portadown on Thursday, a Reuters witness said, as a fourth night of anti-immigrant violence moved to a different part of the British-run province.
Violence first flared on Monday after two 14-year-old boys were arrested and appeared in court, accused of a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in the town. The charges were read via a Romanian interpreter to the boys, whose lawyer told the court they denied the charge, the BBC reported.
One of a number of anti-immigration protests on Thursday was held in Portadown, 50 kilometres from the capital Belfast. A large policing operation of officers in riot gear and armoured vans closed off a number of roads in advance.
Debris was strewn across streets and wheelie bins were set on fire.
Other protests passed off without major incident, including in Ballymena, the primary flashpoint of the first two nights of more intense violence, local media reported.
Paul Frew, a member of the regional assembly from Ballymena, said that while some people gathered on the streets again amidst a big police presence, it was much quieter and that heavy rainfall had helped keep people away.
"Hopefully we're through the worst of it," Frew, a member of the Democratic Unionist Party, told the BBC.
(Reporting Clodagh Kilcoyne and Ben Makori in Portadown, Amanda Ferguson in Belfast; Writing by Padraic Halpin; Editing by Daniel Wallis)
The violence first flared after two 14-year-old boys were arrested and appeared in court, accused of a serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in the town.
Rioters attacked police with petrol bombs, rocks, and fireworks, leading to significant unrest in the area.
A large policing operation was deployed, with officers in riot gear and armoured vans closing off areas to manage the situation.
Other protests in Ballymena passed without major incident, although there was a notable police presence.
Paul Frew, a member of the regional assembly, expressed hope that the worst of the violence was over, noting that the situation was much quieter on Thursday.
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