PSNI investigating loyalist bonfire refugee effigies as hate incident
Crowds in the County Tyrone village of Moygashel cheered on Thursday night when the towering pyre was lit and flames engulfed the vessel and a dozen dark-skinned, lifesize mannequins with lifejackets.
Placards beneath the boat stated 'stop the boats' and 'veterans before refugees'. An Ireland flag also burned in the bonfire, which was part of wider loyalist commemorations.
In a statement hours before the pyre was lit, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said it was investigating it as a hate incident.
Earlier in the week politicians condemned the stunt as hateful and racist and called for the effigies to be removed or the entire bonfire to be dismantled.
A separate bonfire in Belfast, which is to be lit on Friday night – one of an estimated 300 bonfires across Northern Ireland – has caused controversy because it is on a site that contains asbestos and is close to an electricity substation that powers two hospitals. Northern Ireland's environment minister, Andrew Muir, urged people not to attend the bonfire out of safety concerns.
Images of the flaming pyre at Moygashel fuelled fresh condemnation of the refugee boat effigies, following anti-immigrant riots in Ballymena last month and renewed political focus in Britain on small boats crossing the Channel.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International's Northern Ireland programme director, said: 'It is shameful that the authorities allowed this despicable display of hate to go ahead. What a shocking message to send to local migrant families. It is just weeks since migrant families were forced to flee for their lives when their homes were attacked and set on fire – a chilling pattern of escalating hostility.'
The Sinn Féin assembly member Colm Gildernew said the effigies were abhorrent and an attempt to dehumanise people. 'I welcome that police are treating this as a hate incident. It's vital those responsible are held accountable for their disgusting actions.'
Mike Nesbitt, the Ulster Unionist party leader and health minister, said the refugee effigies should have been removed. 'This image is sickening, deplorable and entirely out of step with what is supposed to be a cultural celebration,' he wrote on X.
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Earlier in the week Jamie Bryson, a prominent loyalist activist, defended the pyre, saying: 'Every year Moygashel bonfire combines artistic protest with their cultural celebration. Their yearly art has itself become a tradition. This year the focus is on the scandal of mass illegal immigration.'
Bonfires form part of the annual celebration of the victory of King William III's Protestant forces over Catholics at the battle of the Boyne in 1690. Parades are to be held across Northern Ireland on Saturday.
A Belfast city council committee voted on Wednesday to send contractors to dismantle the contentious pyre on Meridi Street off Donegall Road, but it is still due to be ignited late on Friday.
Police refused a request to help, saying letting the bonfire go ahead was less risky than trying to stop it. Paramilitary groups had warned of 'widespread disorder' if the pyre was removed, while Sinn Féin said letting the bonfire proceed would be giving in to mob rule.
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