A report for Good Evening
Ulster following events after Tom King, the secretary of state for Northern
Ireland, closed down the Assembly. It was only being used at the time by
Unionist politicians and no business was being conducted in it, as part of the ongoing
protests against the Anglo-Irish Agreement. Following the dissolution, 22
Unionist politicians staged a sit-in protest and refused to leave the chamber.
The RUC was forced to disperse a group of 200 protestors outside and then
removed the politicians from inside the building.
The
leader of the DUP, Ian Paisley, can be seen here being carried through a door
by officers. At a press conference afterwards, Paisley urges local communities
to organise and suggested that hand-to-hand fighting was possible with Northern
Ireland on 'the brink of civil war'. Tom King is interviewed by Norman Stockton
about the government's response.