{"id":8769,"date":"2023-02-27T15:59:39","date_gmt":"2023-02-27T15:59:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qpol.qub.ac.uk\/?p=8769"},"modified":"2023-02-27T15:59:39","modified_gmt":"2023-02-27T15:59:39","slug":"omagh-police-shooting-why-attack-comes-at-a-difficult-time-in-northern-ireland","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.qub.ac.uk\/qpol\/omagh-police-shooting-why-attack-comes-at-a-difficult-time-in-northern-ireland\/","title":{"rendered":"Omagh police shooting: why attack comes at a difficult time in Northern Ireland"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The shooting of a police officer in Omagh on Thursday evening is another horrific reminder that Northern Ireland remains a deeply and dangerously divided society. Though it has not been confirmed that the assailants were paramilitaries, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) has stated<\/a> that it is investigating links to dissident republicanism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell was shot multiple times, and is currently in a stable but critical condition, with what are described as \u201clife-changing injuries\u201d<\/a>. A senior police officer, Caldwell has played a leading role in investigations of non-political criminality, but also high profile cases involving dissidents, including the killing of fellow PSNI officer Ronan Kerr in 2011, and that of journalist Lyra McKee<\/a> in 2019 \u2013 the latter also resulting from an attempted attack on the police.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For those reasons, the PSNI obviously sees dissidents as again being the likely perpetrators of this latest attack.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The timing of the assault also suggests political motivation. Like the killing of McKee, the attack comes at time of particular political uncertainty and instability in the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To continue reading, please click here. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Article originally appeared on The Conversation. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dr Peter McLoughlin looks at the recent shooting in Omagh of Detective Chief Inspector John Caldwell. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2461,"featured_media":8771,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":true,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8769","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics-and-democracy"],"mb":[],"acf":{"authors":{"simple_value_formatted":"