There needs to be a major effort to identify and charge the Belfast rioters and give severe sentences to those found guilty

Even since the end of the Troubles in the late 1990s, there have been sporadic outbursts of violence on the streets, which have to be tackled by PSNI riot squads.

These have happened in loyalist and republican areas.

But there has been a particular problem in some locations in Belfast and Londonderry in which dissident republican thugs are strong.

The weekend’s violence happened in Distillery Street, Belfast. It followed the removal of material from interment commemoration bonfire sites.

We hear politicians saying things such as people do not want such violence, and that is probably true even of opinion in some of the most hardcore areas where they happen.

But that is almost beside the point. If local populations and community leaders are unable to bring influence to stop such attacks, then there must be comprehensive, detailed and, if need be, expensive operations to find the culprits.

They must then be brought before the courts and, if found guilty, jailed for significant periods of time.

If such convictions are secured and the sentencing is not strong enough, then sentencing for rioting must be reviewed.

There was a time, almost 20 years ago when the PSNI was taking over from the RUC, when it was reported that a significant percentage of the entire police force had been injured in riots.

In one incident in republican Ardoyne in 2001, more than 100 officers were injured.

Some rioters were said to be knowledgeable about their ‘rights’ and the sort of thing they could get away with.

It is a weak and muddled society that wrings its hands and talks about the problems and disadvantages facing young rioters, and gets so concerned about their rights that it pays insufficient attention to the rights of the brave people who put on uniform at all hours of the night to maintain the peace.

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