The Australian government has issued advice to people travelling to Northern Ireland following recent trouble.

Its Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it is due to an upsurge in dissident republican attacks and parade related riots.

Australian citizens have been told they could inadvertently get caught up in violence.

There has been a rise in tensions and violence across Northern Ireland in recent weeks.

More than 40 people were charged with rioting in Belfast over the Twelfth of July period.

Two bombs were defused in County Down on 4 and 8 of August and a car bomb exploded outside a police station in Londonderry on 3 August.

Three children, aged between two and 12, suffered minor injuries when a bomb exploded in a bin in Lurgan, County Armagh, on 14 August.

In May 2010, the Independent Monitoring Commission (IMC) reported the dissident republican threat in Northern Ireland remained highly active and dangerous.

The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs has warned citizens of bomb attacks aimed at police and military targets.

On the government's travel advice page it said: "Australians could inadvertently be caught up in violence directed at others."

The department also advised people to "avoid all protests and demonstrations as they may turn violent".
Television pictures

BBC journalist Phil Mercer, who works in Australia, said the warning had been reissued because of an "increase in civil unrest and political tension in Northern Ireland".

He said the Australian government's travel advisories have been matched by the US government urging its citizens to be alert to their surroundings and the chance of sporadic violence in Northern Ireland and the New Zealand government warning its citizens about travelling here.

Mr Mercer said Australians had been warned that incidents of sectarian violence and dissident activity in Northern Ireland had increased during 2009 and 2010 and were urged "to take extreme caution".

"The sectarian violence in Belfast in the last few months has made headline news here in Australia, principally because the television pictures that have been broadcast into Australian homes have been extremely graphic," he added.

"The peace process in NI has been very carefully followed here, there are many people with proud Celtic heritages, so that side of thing is very well covered too.

"People have family members who live in the UK so of course they will take a great deal of interest in what's happening."

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-11103791

Funnily enough I don't think I've ever met an Aussie out in the street over here (used to work with one but criminal proceedings saw him leave the country lol)

This all seems fair enough to me. I've been over here for the last 14 years and I still feel very uncomfortable around the 12th fortnight.
It's a real shame that more trouble has been happening over the past couple of years, because before then there appeared to have been a real decline in any trouble over the summer.

Mark

There may have been an increase in trouble, but the odds of a tourist being targeted is slim. I was in London during the last big IRA push, I never saw or heard anything. Not even the canary wharf bomb. Though I was a good few miles away in south London. Unless tourists are targeted then there is no real risk.

The gameplay's different with the dissidents though. They need a kill for the publicity (it really is that simple), hence this recent list of activities:

Bombs hundreds of pounds in weight in residential/shopping areas just to basically dent a police station, with the wrong warnings given in the hope of catching officers in the blast (a smaller bomb injured three kids recently with the same MO).

Hoax bomb alerts and calls just to draw police into a residential area they could never protect completely if it kicked off - high velocity rounds really travel. And bounce...

Taking hostages and forcing them to travel with a bomb to a given location. It's not hard to see how that could go horribly wrong.

Like ordinary rounds, the police plastic ones are a bit indiscriminate once they've been made to fire them and start bouncing, which is all too conceivable.

For me, it isn't hard to see how tourists could get caught up in the dissidents wee guerilla campaign

Yes but tourism benefits all and look at Sri Lanka, its tourism has still not recovered all these years later. The catholic population are just as likely to suffer from a drop in tourism. Though the public will probably play safe and stay away.

Dissidents don't care, just another way of damaging the state, like collecting their dole money...

Maybe they are angry at their dole money being linked to CPI and not RPI.

NI is the most quiet country I have ever visited