Almost 60% favour Commission to regulate bonfires and flags

58% of people in favour of a commission to regulate bonfires, flags

Suzanne Breen, Political Editor, Belfast Telegraph, August 18th, 2025

90% OF NATIONALISTS SUPPORT IDEA, WHILE 76% OF UNIONISTS AGAINST

Almost six in 10 people in Northern Ireland want a commission set up to regulate and manage bonfires and the display of flags here.

But while nine in 10 nationalists and Alliance voters support the establishment of such a body, three-quarters of unionists oppose it, according to a new poll.

There has been widespread condemnation of two bonfires in Derry on Friday night which were adorned with Union flags, poppy wreaths, Israel and US flags, an image of King Charles and other emblems.

The two nationalist bonfires were lit in the Bogside and the Creggan on August 15, the Feast of the Assumption, which is a Catholic holy day.

There were around 250 loyalist bonfires on July 11 as part of celebrations leading up to the Twelfth. 'Kill All Taigs' signs along with an effigy of migrants on a boat were among the material placed on controversial pyres.

A bonfire also went ahead on a site containing asbestos in the Village area of south Belfast, despite warnings over the dangers.

In a LucidTalk poll for the Belfast Telegraph, 58% of voters back a commission to regulate and manage bonfires and the display of flags here, similar to how the Parades Commission decides on marches and demonstrations.

Some 38% of people oppose the establishment of such a body, with 4% saying they are unsure or have no opinion.

There is a sharp division along sectarian lines. Ninety per cent of nationalists back a commission to regulate bonfires and flags, with 7% against it and 3% undecided.

Those views are closely mirrored among Alliance and Green voters — 89% of whom back such a move, with 10% opposing it and 1% undecided.

However, 76% of unionists are against a commission, with just 18% supporting one and 6% unsure or having no opinion.

Some 3,028 people took part in our online poll from August 8-11. The sample was scientifically weighted to reflect the Northern Ireland population.

Women most supportive of togher controls

Women (63%) were more likely to support a commission for bonfires and the display of flags than men (54%).

Middle-class voters (62%) were also more likely to support setting up such a body than working-class ones (55%).

First Minister Michelle O'Neill last week voiced her opposition to the pyres in Derry.

“There is no place for illegal, unregulated bonfires or the burning of flags and emblems, whether that's today in Derry or what we witnessed across the north in July,” she said.

Ms O'Neill added that the majority of people wanted “a better future for their children and grandchildren, free from sectarianism and hate”.

The names of a dead Protestant teenager and former senior PSNI detective John Caldwell, who was shot and seriously injured by the New IRA two years ago, were placed on the Creggan bonfire.

The Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, claimed that older sinister forces were exploiting young people to stoke up fear and anger in communities.

Hate-filled displays will continue until we stand up to the bully boys

Suzanne Breen, Belfast Telegraph, August 18th, 2025

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.

Kyle Bonnes had jumped into the Faughan River at Drumahoe while running away from police. He and his friend Glen O'Hara had been drinking in playing fields and fled when approached by the PSNI.

Coroner John Leckey said Kyle's life could have been saved had there been lifebelts along that stretch of the River Faughan. Foyle Search and Rescue agreed.

The 15-year-old was from Tullyally in the Waterside area of the city, but the death of a teenager who was being chased by police is something you'd expect to resonate on the nationalist side of the divide as well.

The placard gloating at the child's death was reportedly removed from the bonfire after a backlash. But the organisers of the pyre deserve no credit. The sign had hardly been a mistake. Photos showing Kyle's name had appeared on the official Creggan bonfire social media page.

Martin McGuinness and PSNI officers

It's far from the first time the dead have been mocked on bonfires. Four months after Martin McGuinness's death, an effigy of the former Deputy First Minister in his coffin was placed on a bonfire at Clonduff Road in east Belfast. The following year, the names of murdered PSNI officers Stephen Carroll and Ronan Kerr, along with murdered prison officer Adrian Ismay, appeared on the Bogside bonfire.

The same year a sign saying “Willie Frazer have you found your daddy yet?” was put on a Newry bonfire. The victims' campaigner's father Bertie, a UDR member, had been killed by the IRA in 1975.

Within weeks of Frazer's death in 2019, a placard also mocked his passing. “Join your da in hell, Willie.” Another celebrated the IRA's 1979 murder of soldiers in Narrow Water — “18 Brits blown to bits haha”.

These despicable displays prove that there are those in the republican community more than willing to race to the bottom and engage in acts of hate.

But let's not create a false equivalence in terms of the extent of the problem. There has been real community leadership in nationalist areas to stamp out bonfires.

Two republican pyres were burnt this summer — albeit two too many — compared to over 250 loyalist ones.

Family friendly as well as hate filled

Some are genuinely family-friendly affairs — the Kilkeel event is regularly and rightly held up as an example — but others are literally bonfires of hate. In Moygashel, we saw effigies of refugees in a boat burned.

Crowds cheered as flames engulfed the vessel where a dozen dark-skinned, life-size mannequins with lifejackets sat. Racism met misogyny and sectarianism on the Eleventh Night. Some politicians and observers see a bonfire commission as a possible solution to such controversies every summer. Those organising safe, hate-free fires would certainly have nothing to fear.

Almost six in 10 people support setting up a commission to regulate and manage bonfires and the display of flags. Yet drilling down into the details of our LucidTalk poll tells its own story. While nine in 10 nationalists and Alliance/Green voters back such a move, less than one in five unionists do. Continuing with 'Kill All Taig' signs, effigies of immigrants, and the shameful Creggan and Bogside bonfires cannot surely be preferable over official regulation?

Yet I remain sceptical a bonfire commission would be effective anyway. Rather than create new bodies, we just need the existing ones to actually implement the law on the environment, pollution, fly-tipping and blocking roads.

The Department for Infrastructure, the fire and rescue service, the PSNI and the Northern Ireland Environment Agency all have different powers to regulate bonfires.

Councils can also take action under various legislation. Yet every summer, collective blind eyes are turned by countless official bodies, or tokenistic gestures are made at the eleventh hour. A Belfast City Council committee voted to send in contractors to remove the controversial Village bonfire on July 9. The PSNI were asked for assistance, but declined the request the following day.

A joint statement issued on behalf of paramilitaries in south Belfast had warned of the possibility of “serious and sustained disorder”.

“PSNI have been advised of the risk of widespread disorder, with loyalists in other areas across NI staging interface riots to stretch the PSNI,” it said.

“The police have been told there is a very real prospect of serious and sustained disorder should there be any effort to remove the bonfire.”

A bonfire commission would rely on police to implement its decisions. Is the PSNI willing and able to do that if paramilitaries flex their muscles?

Until the determination exists to face down those threatening violence, we will continue to see windows boarded up, houses hosed down, and towering hate-filled pyres as common sense goes up in flames in our annual summer madness.

Less than a third of voters agree with council's dual language signage policy

Liam Tunney, Belfast Telegraph, August 18th, 2025

SOME 30% OF UNIONISTS WOULD GIVE BACKING TO A 50% THRESHOLD

Less than a third of voters agree with Belfast City Council's current policy on dual language signage, a new poll has revealed.

Existing rules dictate that in order for a dual sign to be placed on a specific street, an application specifying the requested language must be made by either from a resident, elected member or a developer.

Once the request is received, a survey of residents living on the street is conducted with a threshold of just 15% required for the proposal to move forward for approval by a council committee.

The policy has been under the spotlight during a number of recent high profile cases relating to Irish language signs.

However, a Lucid Talk poll has found that 31% of respondents back the current arrangements, with 39% indicating they felt the threshold should be higher.

Some 14% of respondents said the threshold should be around the 25-30% mark while a further 25% felt a majority of 50% or more should be required to trigger any change.

Around 29% of respondents said they disagreed with the policy entirely and indicated they felt signage should be in English only. The other 1% were unsure.

Broken down by constitutional preference, the poll revealed almost two thirds (63%) of nationalists agreed with the current threshold, while the same percentage of unionists favoured a single-language approach.

A quarter of constitutionally neutral respondents backed the current policy while 36% of the undecided voting bloc felt 15% was the correct threshold.

Some 30% of unionists indicated they would back the policy if the threshold was raised to 50%.

When broken down by party preference, almost a quarter (23%) of TUV voters said they would accept a policy with a 50% threshold.

The current policy is overwhelmingly backed by Sinn Féin voters (72%), with 39% of SDLP voters supporting existing arrangements along with 22% of Alliance Party voters. Raising the bar to 50% appeared to have the highest overall support.

Such a move would also have the backing of 28% of DUP voters, 40% of Alliance voters, 38% of UUP voters and 29% of SDLP supporters.

More than two thirds (67%) of DUP would prefer English-only signage, along with almost half (48%) of UUP supporters and more than three quarters (76%) of TUV voters.

Not a single Sinn Féin voter supports signs being exclusively in English, but a quarter of them indicated they would support the raising of the threshold to 50%.

An attempt to introduce a 50/50 requirement was made in 2012, when the council was asked to consider reducing the threshold from the two thirds majority rule which had been in place since 1998.

That move was rejected and no change was made for another decade when the current 15% rule was introduced.

Irish language advocacy groups have argued that the current policy is in line with guidance that was issued by the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues which is set at between 5% and 20%.

As of July 2 this year, 1,110 dual-language sign applications, pertaining to 737 individual streets, were pending approval.

Vigilantes target ethnic minorities rather than Drug Lords

Allison Morris, Belfast Telegraph, June 18th, 2025

I’m not accusing you of anything, but it's the colour of your skin.” These were the words screamed into the face of a terrified man in his 20s by members of a vigilante gang and posted online in recent days.

Dressed up as some kind of neighbourly pursuit, Neil Pinkerton and a motley crew calling themselves the 'East Belfast First Division' have been patrolling the streets like a pound shop Dad's Army.

The self-styled vigilante group appeared delighted with their new-found infamy.

They also posted videos outside a library in east Belfast where two drag queens had to be escorted by police for their own safety during a parent-and-child storytelling event.

Once again, it's shown that hate is transferable.

Some of the videos were so aggressive in nature that TikTok banned them. But before that there were dozens of posts set to moody Peaky Blinders-style music.

The platform, which allows users to post short-form recordings, removed the @irishbreedulsterr handle, which belonged to the 'Irish Bred Ulster Rared' account.

The account had amassed nearly 20,000 followers and garnered more than 116,000 likes, meaning it would have also been creating revenue for the account's owner.

Videos showing individuals aggressively confronting members of ethnic minority communities had been watched and shared by hundreds of people.

The tagline “we groom dogs, not children” was also on some of the videos.

This appeared to be a reference to Pinkerton, who breeds hunting dogs and in the past has had canines removed from his care. He is currently subject to a suspended sentence after one of them bit an 11-year-old child.

Vigilanteeism

Vigilantism is not new to Northern Ireland; we have a history of people taking the law into their own hands.

The UDA was originally set up as an organisation that manned barricades and patrolled the streets of loyalist communities.

Direct Action Against Drugs carried out a purge of drug dealers at a time when the IRA were officially on ceasefire.

But East Belfast First Division (EBFD) has a very specific aim — and one that the PSNI rightly described as “racism, pure and simple”.

The gang of thuggish men, often with questionable pasts, are specifically targeting foreign migrants.

And given the aggressive and arguably criminal acts that they were posting online — on one occasion attacking a homeless man and throwing his sleeping bag in the Lagan — their actions off camera are worthy of further investigation.

The comments section of the EBFD was full of praise for their actions from far-right groups in the south of Ireland and in America, all goading each other on to be more and more extreme.

It's been said before but needs repeating often for those who continue to peddle myths about threats from hordes of foreign “undocumented men”: women are most in danger in their own homes.

There have been two women killed recently in east Belfast in the very streets EBFD are patrolling. There are people charged and awaiting trial — none of whom are foreign nationals.

There are serious issues with drug abuse and mental illness across Belfast, including in the east of the city where the thugs of the EBFD are patrolling. This causes a real and present danger to young people.

Politics of distraction

That the EBFD chose to harass a 14-year-old migrant child on a scooter in a park rather than stage a protest outside their local paramilitary drug dealer's house speaks volumes.

These are the so-called 'protectors of women' who idolise Donald Trump, Conor McGregor and Andrew Tate.

As with the riots last August and more recently in Ballymena, the internet plays a huge role in spreading and orchestrating hate against minorities.

So ask yourself this: why would social media companies owned by some of the richest men in the world, people who wield huge political influence, be interested in running platforms that are used to spread hate and cause division?

Why in the past few years have we seen an increase in the podcasters, men and women with millions of followers, making money spreading misinformation on everything from migration to climate change, while also telling people not to watch the news?

Their followers boast about how they don't follow any mainstream news, as though being ill-informed is something to be proud of.

They try to tell people that basic human decency is 'woke', that it's OK to constantly punch down on those with nothing, rather than look up at those amassing vast, unimaginable, eye-watering wealth.

They claim that, somehow, your neighbour, living in a damp, overcrowded rental property is the cause of all the world's ills — not the 1% controlling the real power and wealth.

Their head-melting logic revolves around making really poor white people think that really poor brown people are responsible for problems that, in reality, are caused by rich white men.

It's a tactic that works and one that has trickled down. And now, what was once considered hate speech is just accepted as normal discourse.

Stormont set to agree deal to give children from Palestine urgent medical care in north

John Manley, Political Correspondent, Irish News, August 18th, 2025

STORMONT’S leaders are poised to approve the provision of urgent medical treatment for Palestinian children as part of a UK-wide initiative.

The Irish News understands that First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Deputy First Minister Emma Little Pengelly are close to authorising an ‘urgent procedure’ that will enable Northern Ireland’s participation in the medical evacuation from Gaza.

Ulster Unionist health minister Mike Nesbitt is supportive of the initiative, which would initially see two or possibly three Palestinian children receive urgent clinical attention in one of the north’s hospitals.

A senior source said efforts to get clearance from The Executive Office, which would avoid the need for a full executive meeting, were “far advanced”.

In all, some 300 seriously ill or injured children are expected to be evacuated from Gaza for NHS treatment.

The number of children earmarked for treatment in the north will be around 3% of the total, reflecting the region’s population relative to the UK as a whole.

Mr Nesbitt was contacted by the British government earlier this month about the potential for taking part in the so-called medivac.

According to Sinn Féin MLA Declan Kearney, the first minister has agreed an urgent procedure request from the health minister to participate in this humanitarian effort.

Ms O’Neill has previously voiced support for the scheme but sign-off from the deputy first minister is also required.

Ms Little-Pengelly’s DUP colleague Jonathan Buckley responded to the Sinn Féin first minister’s recent remarks by arguing that “our primary focus should be on our own people have access to the healthcare that they themselves have paid into for many years”.

DUP MLA Trevor Clarke accused Ms O’Neill of “putting Gaza before Northern Ireland’s cancer patients”.

But despite criticism from her back benches it would appear unlikely that the deputy first minister would veto treatment for less than a handful of seriously ill children as part of a UK-wide initiative.

Assembly expected to agree

Assembly ready to agree emergency treatment for Palestinian children

News of the expected breakthrough comes as a cross-party group of 96 MPs urged the British government to bring the sick and injured Gazan children to Britain “without delay”.

In a letter to British Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, Foreign Secretary David Lammy and Health Secretary Wes Streeting, the MPs warn the health system in Gaza has been “decimated” and that conditions in the territory are “worsening by the minute”.

The letter, coordinated by Labour MP and GP, Dr Simon Opher, welcomes the government “finally prioritising” the issue but calls on senior ministers to “recognise the real urgency around medical evacuations”.

A British government spokesperson said: “We are accelerating plans to evacuate children from Gaza who require urgent medical care, including bringing them to the UK for specialist treatment where that is the best option for their care – with a cross-government taskforce working urgently to pull a new scheme together.”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in late June that the government was “urgently accelerating” efforts to bring children over for treatment.

The Executive Office could not be contacted for comment.

Hundreds gather at city hall rally despite threat of arrests

Conor Coyle, Irish News, August 18th, 2025

HUNDREDS of people gathered at Belfast City Hall yesterday in what was a largely peaceful protest over the ongoing war in Gaza.

The ‘Defend the Right to Protest’ rally saw the arrival of dozens of cyclists who travelled to Belfast from Dublin to show solidarity with those affected by the war.

The PSNI had warned in advance that any individual expressing support for the banned Palestine Action group may be liable for arrest.

More than 500 people were arrested last weekend on suspicion of displaying an item in support of a proscribed group as demonstrations took place in London. The group was proscribed by the British government in July.

Pro-Palestine activists wearing Palestine Action T-shirts take part in a protest at Belfast City Hall while waiting on the arrival of a group of cyclists who travelled from Dublin to Belfast over the weekend

No arrests for support of banned group.

No arrests were made by the PSNI during yesterday’s rally in Belfast, despite a significant police presence in the city centre.

A number of people were seen wearing T-shirts in support of Palestine Action.

A small group of counter-protesters attended the rally and there were a number of heated confrontations between the demonstrators.

At one point Donegall Road North was blocked by protesters as a group of cyclists who had travelled to Belfast from Dublin arrived at City Hall.

Speakers at the rally included members of Palestine Action, who proclaimed to the crowd that “we are going nowhere”.

Among the attendees was Máire Mhic an Fhailí (74), a west Belfast grandmother who was carried into the back of a PSNI vehicle by officers after attending a pro-Palestinian demonstration last week.

French monitoring Kneecap festival performance may ban next concert

By Mark Robinson, Irish News, August 17th, 2025

French Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has said that his officials will be monitoring a Kneecap festival performance in the country on Sunday, with the potential for their next concert to be banned if any disturbances arise.

It comes as French politician Caroline Yadan wrote to the minister requesting that he ban Kneecap from performing at the Rock-en-Seine Festival in the outskirts of Paris next week.

In July, the local municipality announced that they would be pulling €40,000 of funding from Rock-en-Seine over the band’s inclusion in the festival line-up.

Ms Yadan, who is an elected member of the National Assembly and represents French citizens living abroad in the Mediterranean - including Israel and Palestine - has previously said Kneecap’s inclusion in the music event would be an “insult” to the country’s values.

Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she had been working closely with her French counterpart, Bruno Retailleau, to change French rules ‘as swiftly as possible’

In a letter to the minister earlier this month, she claimed that their performance at the event could lead to public order disturbances, hate speech and raised concerns about the potential to lead to “acts of an antisemitic nature” amid a “surge of antisemitism” in France.

Ms Yadan, who sits as part of the presidential party group in parliament, later welcomed a response from Mr Retailleau, dated August 14, in which he “strongly condemned” comments that “may have previously been made” by Kneecap.

“I want to assure you of my unwavering attitude towards any language of an antisemitic nature, apology for terrorism or incitement to hatred, which will directly become the subject of legal proceedings,” he said.

He added that the group had committed to a code of conduct before performing at the Eurockéennes Festival in Belfort, which they adhered to during their set on July 6.

“The group is soon due to perform at the Cabaret Vert Festival on Sunday, August 17, where they have made the same commitments with the Ardennes prefecture. I have tasked my officials to pay close attention to what they say during this concert,” he said.

Kneecap’s performance at Glastonbury is also set to be investigated

“Any disturbances will immediately become legal matters, and, in coordination with the Prefect of Paris, who is closely following this situation, any element identified that is likely to constitute a public order disturbance will lead to a ban on their concert at the Rock-en-Seine festival.”

Responding to Ms Yadan, Rock-en-Seine owner Matthieu Pigasse said that “claiming that supporting the Palestinian cause would be a disturbance to public order is pathetic” and that given her constituency, she should instead be concerned about the “fate of Palestinians in the ongoing genocide”

“The only commitment made by Kneecap to the festival, like all artists, is to respect its values, which you clearly don’t share,” he said.

Earlier this month the Hungarian government banned the group, which consists of Liam Óg Ó hAnnaidh (Mo Chara) and Naoise Ó Cairealláin (Móglaí Bap) and JJ Ó Dochartaigh (DJ Próvaí), from entering the country for three years.

Zoltan Kovacs accused the group of “citing antisemitic hate speech and open praise for Hamas and Hezbollah as justification”.

The band has previously denied support for Hamas and Hezbollah and said that “false accusations of antisemitism” were used to “distract, confuse, and provide cover for genocide”.

Member Mo Chara, who was accused of displaying a flag in support of Hezbollah at a concert in London last year, is due back before Westminster Magistrates’ Court on August 20.

He denies the charge against him.