A fresh wave of arson has swept through Belfast, leaving a city already scarred by division further on edge. On Wednesday night, masked individuals torched vehicles and a bus in a coordinated attack that police have linked to sectarian violence. The incidents occurred in predominantly loyalist areas, but the message is clear: the fragile peace of the Good Friday Agreement is showing strain.
For those of us who remember the Troubles, the smell of burning rubber and the crackle of fire alarms trigger a visceral unease. But what does this mean for the people on the ground? I spoke with residents in East Belfast, where a blackened car still smoulders outside a terraced house.
'We thought we were done with this,' said one woman, clutching her child. 'My son doesn't understand why people want to burn things.' The police are bracing for further unrest, with the spectre of paramilitary groups once again pulling strings.
But this isn't just about politics. It's about the slow erosion of community trust, the fear that normal life can be disrupted by shadowy figures. The cultural shift is palpable: young people who grew up in a post-Troubles era are now learning the old fears.
The human cost is not just in property damage but in the psychological retreat into enclaves. As one shopkeeper told me, 'We're not going back, but the walls are going up again.' The question is, how do we stop the fire spreading?
