'Migrant boat' bonfire set alight in Tyrone as PSNI probe 'hate incident'
The towering pyre, which has stirred anger in previous years, was again the centre of fresh outrage after it was decorated with a model of a small boat with several figures inside along with anti-immigration placards.
One sign on the structure read "stop the boats" while another declared "veterans before refugees."
The PSNI said that they "have received a number of reports regarding the bonfire in Moygashel and the material that has been placed upon it".
"Police are investigating this hate incident," a PSNI spokesperson said in a statement.
"Police are here to help those who are or who feel vulnerable, to keep people safe.
"We do this by working with local communities, partners, elected representatives and other stakeholders to deliver local solutions to local problems, building confidence in policing and supporting a safe environment for people to live, work, visit and invest in Northern Ireland, but we can only do so within the legislative framework that exists."
Police have asked anyone with information on the signage to contact them.
There has been widespread criticism of the display, with politicians and religious authorities condemning the structure.
Claire Hanna, leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), described the effigy as "disgusting".
She said: "It would be ludicrous to call it art in any sense.
"In terms of life imitating art, not three weeks ago, we had actual human beings being burned out by probably some of the same elements involved in this bonfire in Ballymena, it's a deeply dehumanising provocation."
Meanwhile John McDowell, the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, condemned the effigy as "racist, threatening and offensive".
Quoting words from scripture, he added: "'The stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt (Leviticus 19:34).'
"These are the words from the Law of God to his people. He is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. If we compare them with the effigy of a boat of migrants which sits, to our humiliation and lasting shame, on top of a bonfire in Moygashel, it exposes that effigy for what it is – racist, threatening and offensive.
"It certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity or with Protestant culture and is in fact inhuman and deeply sub-Christian.
"I hope that the many people from other countries, who live in that area, and who contribute so much to the economy and to the diversity of Dungannon, can be reassured that it does not in any way represent the feeling of the vast majority of their neighbours."
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