Bishop Donal McKeown warns bonfires exploiting 'fear and anger'
BBC News NI understands that one of the offending signs, bearing several names, has since been removed from the pyre.The name of retired Det Ch Insp John Caldwell, who was shot in Omagh in February 2023, appeared on a placard placed on the bonfire in the Creggan area.The name of Kyle Bonnes, who was 15 when he died in a drowning incident in Drumahoe, near Derry, in 2010, also appeared on the pyre.Speaking to BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme, Bishop McKeown said bonfires were being used to "exploit fear and anger"."In some ways I am conflicted, in that there is a lot of pain and distress for many young people in life - I'm not playing down that reality," he said."The question is how do we deal with that."He said he was convinced that having a bonfire that would "encourage anger" was not the way."Nothing beautiful grows in an angry head."Those who are helping young people to be angry are not doing them any favours."
'Ashes of anger'
Bishop McKeown said he was not going to condemn the actions of others, but he believed "a better way forward" had to be found."There is always a risk that older, sinister forces will use young people and say this is the way forward - you name people you hate and burn it on the bonfire."No future can be built on the ashes of anger."
Previously, the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the Police Federation, which represents rank-and-file officers, condemned the placing of names on the bonfire in Creggan. The federation described it as "a reprehensible action by people who are filled with hate and have nothing to offer the wider community".The police said they were aware of material, including drawings of cross-hairs and people's names, being placed on the bonfire and they would investigate all offences linked to it.
Why are the bonfires being lit?
Bonfires on 15 August are traditional in some nationalist parts of Northern Ireland to mark the Feast of the Assumption, a Catholic holy day.Some bonfires are also lit in August to commemorate the introduction of internment without trial of republican suspects during the Troubles, which was brought in by the UK government in 1971.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
2 days ago
- Daily Mail
Princess Andre admits she is 'afraid of driving in the dark' after being held at gunpoint during terrifying carjacking as a child
Princess Andre has revealed she is afraid of driving in the dark after being involved in a carjacking as a child. The influencer, 18, was held at gunpoint during a terrifying 2018 carjacking with her brother Junior, now 20, and mum Katie Price, who was filming her reality show My Crazy Life in South Africa where she was sexually assaulted. And years later, Princess still gets 'random flashbacks' and feelings of terror at night time while out and about. The teenager has earlier this year splashed out on a new swanky £10,000 white Audi A1 along with personalised plates emblazoned with her name. She told The Guardian newspaper: 'Oh yeah, we got hijacked in South Africa when I was 10 and Junior was 12. I was terrified. We were filming for a show with mum and her best friend. 'It's one of the worst things I've experienced in my life. You don't think of anything else apart from trying to survive it. The police said it was a miracle that we all survived. 'I get scared of the dark and driving at night-time, 'cos that's when it happened. I get random flashbacks. If I'm driving at night, I'm like, 'Oh my God, just get me home.' I don't even look behind me.' Princess has also publicly spoken about the horrific ordeal during the second episode of her new ITV fly-on-wall reality show, The Princess Diaries. Six men had held Katie and her children at gunpoint and now Princess revealed how she was almost kidnapped as the men had demanded that her mum handed her over to them. She recounted: 'I just remember the noise, oh my God it was disgusting. This guy, who had a baseball bat and he started smashing the window. 'I looked out the window and I remember it not feeling real, and the guy was just staring into my soul. Then they were like "we've got guns, we're going to shoot you".' The influencer continued: 'My mum... the guys were like touching up my mum which is disgusting and she was like "just F-off my kids, don't touch my kids". 'I think they wanted me because of my blonde hair and blue eyes cause they said "give me your kids". Imagine hearing that at like ten years old. 'After the hijack happened, the police said it was a miracle that we survived. It is the scariest thing I have ever been put through. In that moment I genuinely thought I was going to get kidnapped and die.' The teenager has earlier this year splashed out on a new swanky £10,000 white Audi A1 along with personalised plates emblazoned with her name Speaking to her brother while on a trip in Ibiza, Princess told him: 'A lot of those traumas are still there, so I think it's something you have to learn to just, like, deal with.' In a documentary back in 2022, Katie revealed she was raped during the carjacking, with the tragic events leading to her breakdown. She previously told Daily Mail: 'The experience when I was filming with ITV in South Africa, we had no security, if we had security they would have been able to deal with the six guys that jumped us, held me at gunpoint and raped me.' Katie also recounted that night while appearing on Celebrity SAS in 2023, telling: 'I was in South Africa and Junior wanted a wee, so we all got out and next thing we know six guys pulled up in a car, guns, telling us to get in the car, robbed us, hit us. 'It was like a bad dream, just waiting to be shot and killed.' It comes after Princess discussed living in her mother Katie's now-infamous 'Mucky Mansion', which she brands 'a really scary place'. On the 'chaotic' life at Katie's Sussex home, which has become famous for its dilapidated state and repossessions, Princess admitted 'bad experiences' happened in the house: 'It was a really scary house. A lot went on there. So I didn't really like it.' While Princess did not specify what her own experiences were, Katie has famously sworn the home is haunted while also being victim of attacks on her home. Katie's detached, nine-bedroom pile became renowned for its state - even becoming subject of a reality show - and sold in December for £1.5million. Katie has spoken in the past about her fears that the home is haunted by the spirit of a small child, while a number of her pets have died in the property. The family originally left the £2million family home last May after claiming vandals had poured corrosive acid over her car while it was parked outside the property. Ahead of Price's departure from her former home last May, a source said: 'Katie has been dreading this day for so long but now it is here, she can't wait to leave. 'The house has caused her so much grief and was too much to handle on her own. With work and the kids it all became too much in recent years. And she's convinced it's haunted.' The former glamour model was declared bankrupt for a second time in March 2024 over an unpaid tax bill of £761,994.05. Speaking about the West Sussex property, she said: 'I absolutely hate the Mucky Mansion, even how it's been called the Mucky Mansion because of all the stuff that happened there before... 'I can't wait to get out of that house, I've had nothing but bad memories in that house for nine years. I hate the Mucky Mansion, I never want to see it again and I can't wait to move into my new place, I am so excited. New beginnings, new start, reset button'.
BBC News
2 days ago
- BBC News
Derry bonfires: Last-ditch effort to save stolen flag fails
A last-ditch attempt to save a flag stolen from Londonderry's Protestant cathedral from being burned on a bonfire in the city failed, an independent councillor has replica crimson flag – flown to mark the 1689 siege of Derry – was taken from St Columb's Cathedral in the run up to the bonfire in the Bogside, which was lit on Friday councillor Gary Donnelly said efforts to have the Apprentice Boys' flag returned had failed and he believed it was burnt on the Boys' governor William Walker said he was "saddened" by the theft and it was "hard to believe that anyone would enter the grounds of a church to steal anything". "Unfortunately, it is my firm belief it was burned," Gary Donnelly told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme. "It has been destroyed and I believe that is unfortunate." Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MLA Gary Middleton said the flag was of symbolical importance to the city's unionist is flown twice annually during events relating to the city's 1689 siege, marking the Relief of Derry in August and the shutting of the city's gates in December."To go into a church premises and steal that is completely unacceptable," he told BBC Radio Foyle."To hear it has been burnt is deeply upsetting for many people across our communities." Donnelly said some items had been handed back following mediation before the bonfires were lit but the attempt to save the replica crimson flag had come too said he believed it could have been saved if there had been "reciprocal gestures". However, he said he believed a US flag, stolen from the grounds of a school built on the site of a former US naval base, had been flag, gifted to the school by members of the former US naval communications station, was taken from Foyle College on the Limavady Road in early had been gifted to the school by members of the former US Naval Communications said it had been secured, was in a safe place and there was now "a process under way that that will be handed back". The bonfires in in the Bogside and Creggan had attracted criticism from the Catholic Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, who said "older sinister forces" were exploiting young people to stoke up fear and Minister Michelle O'Neill said there was no place in Northern Ireland for "illegal, unregulated bonfires" or for the burning of flags or was also condemnation after the names of a dead child and a former senior detective who was shot and seriously injured, appeared on a bonfire in Creggan. Why are the bonfires lit? Bonfires on 15 August are traditional in some nationalist parts of Northern Ireland to mark the Feast of the Assumption, a Catholic holy bonfires are also lit in August to commemorate the introduction of internment without trial of republican suspects during the Troubles, which was brought in by the UK government in 1971.
Belfast Telegraph
2 days ago
- Belfast Telegraph
Hate-filled bonfire displays will continue until we stand up to bully boys
Even the dead aren't left alone in the displays of hate in Northern Ireland every summer. The name of a 15-year-old Protestant teenager who died from drowning in 2010 was scrawled on a sign which was placed on the Creggan bonfire in Derry last week.
