Loyalist paramilitaries suspected as hoax device disrupts Irish minister’s Belfast speech

Simon Coveney evacuated after device driven to peace and reconciliation event venue in hijacked van

The attempted attack on the Irish foreign minister, Simon Coveney, in Belfast was a hoax, possibly carried out by the loyalist paramilitary group, the UVF, the police have said.

It halted a peace and reconciliation event in north Belfast, forcing Coveney to leave the stage and interrupting a funeral in a church in the same grounds as the venue.