Drop in terrorism-related incidents recorded in Northern Ireland

The level of terrorism in Northern Ireland dropped over the last 12 months while some police seizures and arrests were up, new figures from Nisra show 

The level of terrorism in Northern Ireland dropped over the last 12 months while some police seizures and arrests were up, official figures show.

There was one terrorist-linked murder in the last year – the shooting of 54-year-old Danny McLean in north Belfast in February. Dissident republicans were among the lines of inquiry followed by police.

This one death recorded between August 1 2020 and July 31 2021 is a drop from two recorded in the previous year, according to a bulletin compiled by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra).

A police cordon off Cliftonville Road in north Belfast, where a man was murdered on Tuesday (Rebecca Black/PA)

There were 13 bombing incidents, down from 19 the previous year, and 34 shooting incidents, down from 46.

Most of the shootings happened in the Causeway Coast and Glens council area and Derry City and Strabane (10 in each district), followed by Belfast (nine).

The number of paramilitary-style shootings – so-called punishment attacks – remained at the same level (18) over the two years, but there were 37 victims of paramilitary-style assaults, down from 52 in the previous year.

Northern Ireland security figures compiled by Nisra (Nisra/PA)

Meanwhile, there were successes for police, including the finding of 39 firearms in 2020/21, up from 25 in the previous year.

Nisra noted the increase resulted from a large quantity of firearms found during May 2021.

The haul of handguns, machine guns, machine pistols and an assault rifle in a rural area close to Newry was described as “the most significant firearms find in Northern Ireland in a decade”.

A haul of 11 firearms including machine guns and an assault rifle which were been recovered in Co Down as part of a National Crime Agency investigation (National Crime Agency/PA)

It followed a search carried out as part of a National Crime Agency investigation into organised crime, supported by the PSNI.

Some 120 arrests under Section 41 of the Terrorism Act were made in 2020/21, up from 80 in the previous year, and 22 people were subsequently charged, up from eight in the previous year.