LONDON - Northern Ireland's Loyalist Communities Council, which represents the views of loyalist paramilitaries, said it was not involved in recent violence but that loyalist anger had been misunderstood.
"The Loyalist Communities Council can confirm that none of their associated groups have been involved either directly or indirectly in the violence witnessed in recent days," it said.
"To date there has been a spectacular collective failure to understand properly the scale and nature of Unionist and Loyalist anger. Indeed there is a complete failure to understand Loyalists as people and equal citizens."
(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge; Editing by Alistair Smout)