Ballymena violence fuelled by mainstreaming of far-right

The Herald Scotland

7 days ago

As we saw with the Southport riots last August, there has been much discussion about the role of social media in fuelling racist violence. Loyalist groups like the Ballymena Reaction Group and Protestant Coalition used their public Facebook pages to share details of the protests and call for the removal of "Roma gang masters" from their communities. Masked rioters went as far as to livestream themselves burning down a house in Ballymena, with one offering to smash a window in return for 'gifts' from viewers. Numerous false claims about immigrants were shared within these online groups. It was perhaps no surprise that Sinn Fein representative Philip McGuigan called on big tech companies like Meta to remove such content.
There are other similarities to previous incidents of violent disorder too. A recurring theme in my research has been how politicians often make things worse through their commentary, both on and offline. From the 2012 flag protests in Northern Ireland to the 2024 Southport riots, some politicians have inflamed tensions rather than condemning violence without reservation.
Last week there were calls for Communities Minister Gordon Lyons to resign from the Northern Ireland Executive after he revealed on Facebook that families forced out of their homes in Ballymena had been moved to Larne Leisure Centre. Critics accused Mr Lyons of inflaming tensions by revealing their location, which was later targeted by the rioters. Amnesty International's Patrick Corrigan was among those to blame politicians for irresponsibly conflating immigration with crime and social issues that affected all communities.
There will no doubt be more calls for tighter regulation of online platforms to prevent a repeat of this racist violence. While platforms can clearly do more to tackle online disinformation and hate, this doesn't address its root causes.
Elected representatives need to acknowledge their role in producing a toxic discourse in relation to immigration. Some unionist politicians defended the anti-immigrant protests that sparked the violence. Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister suggested the demonstrations had focused attention on "long-standing frustrations" over "unchecked immigration" into Ballymena. This illustrates what Aurelien Mondon and Aaron Winter refer to as the mainstreaming of the far-right. This is when large sections of the media and political class present racist views as the "legitimate concerns" of local communities, irrespective of the facts.
Our politicians need to do much more than say "never again". There is an urgent need for an anti-racist, fact-based narrative on issues like immigration if we are to avoid a repeat of the scenes in Ballymena and Larne.
Dr Paul Reilly is Senior Lecturer in Communications, Media & Democracy at the University of Glasgow
Agenda is a column for outside contributors. Contact: [e-mail]