‘Migrant boat bonfire’ investigated as a hate crime in Northern Ireland

Moygashel: A bonfire in Northern Ireland topped with effigies of migrants sitting in a dinghy and a sign reading “stop the boats”, has been set alight as police investigate the display as a hate crime.

The BBC reported that local police had received several reports from the public relating to the bonfire, which was lit in the town of Moygashel, 65 kilometres west of Belfast, on Thursday, UK time.

Effigies of migrants in a boat burn atop the bonfire at Moygashel, Northern Ireland.Credit: AP

Bonfires are lit across Northern Ireland in mainly Protestant “loyalist” neighbourhoods on the eve of the July 12 commemorations of William of Orange’s victory over the Roman Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

Pictures and effigies of Catholic Irish politicians and anti-Catholic slogans are often placed on some of the bonfires, which are often several storeys high and built from wooden pallets in the weeks ahead of July 12.

In Moygashel, figures of eight migrants in life jackets were placed in a model boat alongside an Irish flag on top of the bonfire built from hundreds of wooden pallets.

Banners below the boat read “Stop the Boats” and “Veterans before Refugees.”

Social media footage showed a crowd gathered around the bonfire as a marching band played.

A member of the regional assembly for Irish nationalists Sinn Fein, Colm Gildernew, called the display “deplorable” and a “clear incitement to hatred” that must be removed immediately.

Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt called for the effigies to be removed and said he condemned them “without reservation”.

“This image is sickening, deplorable and entirely out of step with what is supposed to be a cultural celebration,” Nesbitt, who is the region’s health minister, wrote on X. A statement from the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party to the BBC said the effigy placement “should not take place”.

‘Legitimate expression’

However, prominent loyalist activist Jamie Bryson defended the display to the London Telegraph, citing a European Court of Human Rights ruling that burning effigies could be considered “legitimate political expression” and accused critics of hypocrisy.

“Those who have spent recent months defending Kneecap and labelling their performances as artistic expression are the same people criticising this act of political protest,” he said, referring to the controversial rap group that supports a united Ireland.

The vast bonfire was built on waste ground several days earlier.Credit: Getty Images

July 12 bonfires and celebrations have often sparked violence by both supporters and opponents, even after the 1998 peace deal that largely ended three decades of conflict between Catholic nationalists aspiring to unification with Ireland, the British state and Protestant unionists seeking to retain the status quo.

Supporters, who have recently moved to rebrand July 12 celebrations as Orangefest, say the marches and bonfires represent centuries-old traditions.

In June, masked rioters attacked police and set homes and cars on fire in Ballymena, 65 kilometres north-east of Moygashel, after reports of an alleged attempted sexual assault of a girl by two Romanian-speaking teenagers.

Reuters

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