I grew up in Larne, a port town that has seen better days. Economic anxiety, fierce community loyalty, and the sense of being looked past by those making decisions from afar.

I have represented Ballymena. I now live in north Belfast.

I know these places and their people well. I can say with certainty that communities did not just wake and decide to terrorise their neighbours.

That decision was made for them by people who will never set foot here and have much less than our best interests at heart.

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The attack in north Belfast on Monday night was horrifying. Such barbarism deserves unambiguous condemnation and the full application of the law. The victim and his family deserve our solidarity.

But this is the third consecutive summer Northern Ireland has burned to an anti-immigration script.

Last June it was Ballymena. A Romanian woman told journalists it was the first time in seven years she had put a flag in her window, trying to keep her autistic eight-year-old grandson safe.

The summer before, the Southport lies spread here within hours. The pattern is too consistent and coordinated to be anything other than deliberate.

The actors exploiting this unrest are not all shadowy.

Elon........

© The Irish News