The Olympic torch began its five-day tour of Northern Ireland with plenty of excitement and no signs of trouble Sunday as the territory’s Protestants and Catholics vowed to show the world how united the community has become after four decades of conflict. Police warned of extra security to deter any of the region’s small Irish Republican Army factions – still trying to undermine a broadly successful peace process with guns and bombs – from trying to disrupt the event. But the Olympic torch proceeded from Belfast’s Titanic Quarter to the prosperous belt of towns along the County Down coast with no unusual security evident. Just as during its first two weeks on British soil in England and Wales, the crowds were free to stand beside the passing torchbearer, who was flanked by four to six tracksuit-clad security staff jogging alongside. Between stops, a Northern Ireland police motorcycle unit used to protecting VIPs sped ahead to block roads and ensure the torch convoy of more than a dozen vehicles carrying support staff and media stuck to its ambitious schedule to reach every corner of this province of 1.7 million by Thursday. Sinn Fein, the Irish nationalist party that long supported IRA… Read full this story
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