Taoiseach condemns effigy of refugees on loyalist bonfire and expresses concern about health risks

Irish Times

11-07-2025

Taoiseach
Micheál Martin
has echoed condemnation by church leaders of the burning of effigies of migrants in a boat atop a loyalist bonfire in Northern Ireland, but he has also expressed concern over the health risks of large bonfires in urban areas.
Mr Martin said that he shared the sentiments expressed by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, John McDowell, over the installation of a boat with effigies of refugees on top of a huge bonfire in Moygashel near Dungannon in Co Tyrone.
'I was dismayed when I saw images of that bonfire with the boat carrying migrants – Archbishop McDowell made a strong comment on it and he's right – it's racist, threatening, and offensive and it's unchristian and lacking in any appreciation of human dignity.
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'Isn't it brilliant' a mother says, photographing her children at the bonfire topped with an effigy of a migrant boat
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'My most fundamental observation in terms of these bonfires is the public health and safety – from a public health perspective, bonfires do terrible damage.
'I find it incredible [that people are burning asbestos] because burning material like that would cause lung cancer. There was a casualness about that, as a former minister for health has quite shocked me because let's be honest, bonfires are bad for your health.'
Mr Martin recalled how when he was growing up in Turner's Cross in Cork in the 1960s and 1970s, he and his friends used to search for tyres to throw on bonfires, but looking back with the benefit of health research, such an approach to bonfires was quite dangerous.
'I know it was a different era, and we were young but now, I just think lighting these bonfires with the scale and size of them in densely populated urban areas with a risk to people too if they fall, I just think it's all so unhealthy.'
The Moygashel bonfire with the effigies of eight migrants in life jackets in a boat and signs reading 'Stop the boats' and 'Veterans before refugees' as well as an Irish Tricolour was set alight on Thursday night before a crowd of several hundred onlookers.
The PSNI said earlier that they were investigating a hate incident in reference to the 50 pallet high pyre at Moygashel which was described by SDLP leader
Claire Hanna
as 'disgusting' and by local Sinn Féin MLA Colm Gildernew as 'an incitement to hatred'.
Amnesty International's Northern Ireland director Patrick Corrigan said: '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 authorities must treat this as a hate crime, conduct a full investigation and ensure those responsible are held to account.'
The Moygashel bonfire has become well known in recent years for contentious displays.
Last year, a mock police car was burnt on the top of the bonfire and in 2023 a boat designed to represent the post-Brexit Irish Sea economic border was torched.
Earlier this week, prominent loyalist activist
Jamie Bryson
said the bonfire was a form of 'artistic protest'.
Northern Ireland's Minister for the Environment, Andrew Muir, has said that a separate bonfire in south Belfast should not be set alight.
Fresh safety concerns have been raised over asbestos at the site of the fire, which is due to be lit on Friday night.
Mr Muir pleaded with anyone who is set to attend the fire to 'exercise caution'.
The Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) said late on Thursday that suspected asbestos had been found at five locations on the bonfire site and 20kg of material was removed.
Controversy has surrounded the Belfast bonfire at Meridi Street off the Donegall Road which is also close to an electricity substation which powers two hospitals.
The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) said on Thursday that the force would not agree to a request from Belfast City Council to remove the pyre. – Additional reporting PA