How Northern Ireland's dark policing history looms over Palestine Action protests

In Derry, Northern Ireland, a small group of pensioners gather with cardboard signs in the shadow of the town hall. The handwritten placards read: “I oppose genocide, I support Palestine Action”.

In July, the UK's Labour government banned the direct action group under terrorism legislation. Since then, more than 2,000 people have been arrested for displaying support for the organisation. 

The government moved to proscribe Palestine Action days after activists broke into RAF Brize Norton air base and damaged two aircraft.

Protests in London’s Parliament Square have seen hundreds holding identical signs being hauled away by lines of police – some of them drawn from Northern Ireland’s own force.

Here in Derry, officers hover at a distance and then leave. The protesters, many of them frail, leaning on walking sticks or in wheelchairs, have gathered here every Saturday to display the signs since the ban came into force.

Derry was the epicentre of the Troubles – the 30-year conflict between Republican and Unionist groups over who should control Northern Ireland – and the birthplace of the nation's civil rights movement.

Many of the people assembled at the city's Guildhall on Saturday had marched through Derry’s streets in the 1970s against the British government, which discriminated politically and economically against Catholic communities. 

Bloody Sunday

It was here, on 30 January 1972, that British paratroopers shot dead 13 unarmed civilians protesting against a new law giving authorities the power to imprison people without trial, known as “internment”. The massacre became known as Bloody Sunday.

For the survivors and the movement's veterans these events are not a distant memory. 

'People… are at the risk of fairly long terms of imprisonment for standing with a placard. Where is freedom gone?'

– Eamonn McCann, civil rights activist

Attending the protest is Kate Nash, whose 19-year-old brother William was shot dead on Bloody Sunday.

“William was murdered that day,” Nash said. Her father tried to rescue him, and was found clinging to his body when British soldiers wrenched him away, before dumping William's corpse in the back of an armoured vehicle.

For Eamonn McCann, a key organiser in the civil rights movement in Derry, there are stark connections between the ban on Palestine Action and the use of terrorism laws to crack down on Irish people protesting for their rights in the 1970s.

“The ban on Palestine Action here is in line with many bans issued in Northern Ireland,” McCann told Middle East Eye.

“The Terrorism Act was used against us because of opposition to internment in the 1970s,” he said, referring to legislation introduced in 1973 and '74 which handed the authorities sweeping powers and enabled them to detain people for prolonged periods without trial.

"A new Terrorism Act passed through Westminster half a century after we thought we were rid of all that type of thing," McCann added.

"People carrying these placards around here are at the risk of fairly long terms of imprisonment for standing with a placard. Where is freedom gone?"

‘Not consulted’

The Home Office has faced criticism for failing to consider the implications of the ban for Northern Ireland’s unique policing environment.

The Good Friday Agreement – a power-sharing deal signed in 1998, which ended the Troubles – promised to end a partisan policing regime that disproportionately criminalised Catholic and majority-Republican communities.

'The decision to proscribe Palestine Action has some very serious implications that should have been considered in… the peace process context'

– Daniel Holder, Committee on the Administration of Justice

Rights groups warn that the ban risks reintroducing partisan policing, with those same communities vocally supportive of Palestine and critical of the government's crackdown on Palestine Action.

Northern Ireland’s Department of Justice and the Executive Office told investigative site the Detail that they were “not consulted or asked for any input” regarding the decision to ban the group. 

A community impact assessment that informed the government’s decision to implement the ban also failed to take into account Northern Ireland's particular history and dynamics, according to the Detail.

“I think it would be very rare if a British government department considered the implications for Northern Ireland. It doesn't happen,” Colum Eastwood, the Social Democratic and Labour Party MP for Foyle who raised the issue in parliament, told MEE.

“I don't think they thought about it at all, and it's just creating more and more tension where it doesn't need to exist.”

Rights group the Committee on the Administration of Justice (CAJ) told MEE that it was refused an application for intervention in the judicial review of the ban, which argued that it could impact policing and freedom of expression in Northern Ireland.

A three-day judicial review of the ban, brought by its co-founder Huda Ammori, began in the High Court in London on 26 November.

In his written refusal of the CAJ's application for intervention, seen by MEE, Justice Chamberlain – the presiding judge who has been unexpectedly removed from the case at the last minute – said that the intervention would risk “over-burdening the parties and the court”.

The judicial office told MEE it cannot comment on individual cases.

'Politically partisan impact'

“Our argument was that the decision to proscribe Palestine Action has some very serious implications that should have been considered in the Northern Ireland context and in the peace process context,” CAJ director Daniel Holder told MEE.

“You have enormous efforts made through legislation by the British government to end politically partisan policing. You then have a British government passing a law that is going to have a politically partisan impact in Northern Ireland and expecting the police to enforce it.”

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He noted that Palestinian solidarity lies “overwhelmingly within the Catholic nationalist community”, and the police's enforcement of the ban therefore risks a “differential, if not discriminatory, impact on Catholics and nationalists”, he said.

Holder warned the move could also risk upending the prolonged process of disbanding loyalist groups, which has been repeatedly stalled.

The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) and the Ulster Defence Force (UDF) were the two largest loyalist paramilitary groups and killed hundreds of people during the Troubles.

They remain the two largest active groups today. Despite both being proscribed, neither has formally disbanded. Both are officially declared "moribund", but their members remain involved in organised crime.

“The British government’s proscription of Palestine Action has lowered the bar,” Holder told MEE.

“You have a situation whereby loyalist groups begin a transition process involving proscription, yet the British government has seen fit to proscribe, essentially, a civil society group.”

‘A stark reminder’

Although the Police Service in Northern Ireland (PSNI) has only conducted a handful of arrests, in contrast to the thousands of people arrested in London, the force has come under fire for its differential policing of Palestine Action supporters and proscribed loyalist groups.

Data shared with the investigative site the Detail revealed that the PSNI has arrested three activists and sent six files to the Public Prosecution Service (PPS) under Section 13 of the Terrorism Act since Palestine Action’s ban came into force.

According to the report, in the same period the force failed to take any action against parades by proscribed loyalist groups, which were attended by hundreds of supporters holding wreaths bearing the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) insignia.

“This is a really stark reminder of what used to happen,” Holder said.

Loyalist paramilitarism in Northern Ireland is not just a distant memory. A 2024 House of Commons Committee report found that paramilitary activity “continues to cause harm” to communities across the region.

It noted this consisted of physical or psychological harm to victims and survivors of violence perpetrated by paramilitary groups, harm to communities through coercive control, and the perpetuation of "societal trauma”.

In recent months this has taken the form of threats issued by the UVF and the Ulster Defence Association (UDA) against Belfast City Council for displaying Irish language signage, and the targeting of Catholic and migrant families in north Belfast. 

McCann and activist Goretti Horgan are among 14 people in Derry who received "advisory letters" from the police, inviting them to a “voluntary” interview for their participation in the “Lift the Ban” protests.

The letters, seen by MEE, say the recipients “have been identified by police as having taken part” in protests and that they therefore “have grounds to suspect" that they may have committed offences under the Terrorism Act.

Horgan told MEE that human rights lawyers who worked on the Bloody Sunday inquiry advised their solicitors to inform the PSNI that they would not attend an interview until after the judicial review of the ban, which is taking place this week.

McCann is no stranger to terrorism charges. He is one of the "Raytheon Nine", a group of antiwar activists in Derry who were arrested under the Terrorism Act for breaking into a factory run by a US arms manufacturer to cause criminal damage in 2006.

The terrorism charges were dropped and all of the accused were subsequently acquitted of criminal damage. The group admitted to breaking into the factory to cause damage to the main computer server, arguing that they had done so to prevent the equipment being supplied to Israel for use against Lebanese civilians.

The action effectively forced Raytheon to close its offices in the city. Palestine Action co-founder Huda Ammori cited the campaign as an inspiration for her group’s tactics.

'You have to speak English'

Maire McNally, another veteran civil rights activist, is one of the three people arrested in Northern Ireland under the Terrorism Act since Palestine Action's ban came into effect.

Standing on the Falls Road – the main artery that runs through west Belfast, and the focal point of the Catholic community during the Troubles – the 75-year-old wore a keffiyeh around her neck. On her T-shirt – the same she wore when she was arrested – is written: "We are all Palestine Action". 

'I could wear a T-shirt with any proscribed organisation in the northern part of Ireland, but
I can't wear a Palestine Action T-shirt'

– Maire McNally, civil rights activist

The road is lined with walls awash with colourful murals commemorating the Troubles and Israel's occupation and genocide in Palestine. McNally stands in front of the "solidarity wall", which is painted with recreations of images by artists in Gaza.

In August 2025, McNally was arrested and hauled into a police van in central Belfast for obstruction and for wearing her T-shirt.

She said that three activists were wearing the same shirt, but that she was the only one to be arrested, as she refused to give her name and address in English.

"One police officer come over and was insisting that I speak English," McNally told MEE. "He said: 'You have to speak English or we'll arrest you."

"I could wear a T-shirt with any proscribed organisation in the northern part of Ireland, but I can't wear a Palestine Action T-shirt. So it doesn't make any sense," McNally added.

"Our right to speak… once they take that away, other rights will be taken from us. We have to defend them."

Like McCann, McNally's experiences in the civil rights movement, which she joined at 17, continue to drive her activism.

"When my father was arrested, I fought and I protested," McNally said. "I was also politically active against internment, which is exactly the same as administrative detention in Israel – arrest, no trial, no jury, no sentence."

McNally says she has been cautioned and advised that her case has been referred to the PPS, but she has not heard anything since. She believes the PPS is awaiting the result of the judicial review on the ban before issuing charges.

Her solicitor, Kevin Winters, told MEE that he is challenging the validity of her arrest and the referral of her case to the PPS, as well as launching a complaint with the ombudsman.

A PPS spokesperson confirmed that it had received a file concerning two people arrested that day and that it "remains under consideration".

"Some additional material has been requested from police and when this is received and fully considered a decision as to prosecution will issue," it said.

The PSNI told MEE it had arrested a 74-year-old woman and released her, "pending a report to the Public Prosecution Service".

The sound of marching feet

There is another marked difference between the protest held in Derry and others staged across the UK. Here, the participants do not sit silently with their placards – they chant and deliver speeches.

“We don’t sit with our heads bowed. We stand with our heads up and we speak,” Horgan said.

'I was politically active against internment, which is exactly the same as administrative detention in Israel'

– Maire McNally, civil rights activist

“We are proud of the tradition in Derry of standing up for the right to protest, and we’re proud of making Raytheon leave town. Why would we not speak about that? Why would we not speak about the tradition we stand in?”

For both McCann and Horgan, it is Derry’s history of civil resistance that has shaped and continues to drive their activism, half a century later.

“It’s because of the history of the town we’re in,” Horgan told MEE.

“The key factor in defeating internment and defeating the opponents of civil rights was not the rattle of gunfire. It was not standing for election to parliament,” McCann emphasised. “It was the sound of marching feet on the streets of Derry and the streets of Belfast.”

The square empties after an hour, leaving one woman alone on a camping chair clutching her placard. Amanda Crawford, an activist and theatremaker, drove two hours across the border from southwest Donegal in the Republic of Ireland to attend the protest.

"Fortunately, we don't have these unjust laws, where free speech and freedom to [take action] against genocide is banned," she said of the republic.

"In the north of Ireland, where people have been fighting repression for their political viewpoint and for the freedom of their country from British occupation, that threat is now hanging over them again," she added.

"After a supposed political settlement, people are now in fear if they express their opinions about a genocide – that they will be arrested and imprisoned."

It is bitterly cold, and she suffers from back problems. But, Crawford says, it is "well worth it to make the point".