Latest news with #effigy


The Independent
11-07-2025
- Politics
- The Independent
Effigy of migrant boat burns on top of Northern Ireland bonfire
A bonfire featuring an effigy of migrants in a boat was lit in Co Tyrone, Northern Ireland, prompting a hate incident investigation. The pyre, which included placards reading "stop the boats" and "veterans before refugees", was one of around 300 expected to be lit across Northern Ireland ahead of the Orange Order 's annual 12 July parades. The Police Service of Northern Ireland confirmed they are investigating the bonfire as a hate incident. The Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh, John McDowell, and Amnesty International 's Northern Ireland director, Patrick Corrigan, condemned the bonfire. Watch the video in full above.


Irish Times
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Irish Times
‘Isn't it brilliant' a mother says, photographing her kids in front of the giant Moygashel pyre
Plumes of black smoke billow across blue skies over Moygashel village in Co Tyrone , hours before a loyalist bonfire is lit on Thursday evening. Teenage boys are burning rubble at lunchtime to clear the bonfire site; towering over them, an effigy of a migrants' boat, placed on top of the pyre, containing more than a dozen life-size mannequins wearing life jackets. The structure has sparked outrage since its appearance 24 hours earlier. Despite calls for its removal – one Protestant church leader branded the effigy racist and threatening – a newly erected Tricolour is placed beside the boat. READ MORE 'Isn't it brilliant,' one woman shouts across the street, before ordering her two children to stand in front of the unlit pyre for a photograph. Red, white and blue bunting lines the main village street where Union Jack and Ulster flags are attached to every lamp-post. One of the teenagers guarding the bonfire entrance moves to the centre of the road, shaking a bucket at passing motorists for donations. [ July 12th bonfires - sectarianism or social cohesion? Opens in new window ] On the pavement beside the site, a freshly painted wooden sign is daubed with the words, 'PSNI lift at own risk'. A 'massive crowd' will gather at the Moygashel bonfire before it is lit at 10.30pm, according to one resident who marvels at its builders and dismisses condemnation of the effigy. 'Police haven't removed it so it's not racist and it's not a hate crime,' he says (On Thursday night, police said they had received a number of reports about the bonfire material and were 'investigating this hate incident' ). Others disagree. 'I was deeply depressed when I saw it. I think it is horrendous,' says former loyalist paramilitary David Adams. 'It's just racism, pure and simple; I hate to drag religion into it ... but it goes against everything that Protestantism is supposed to be about.' Adams, a former UDA member, helped deliver the loyalist ceasefire of 1994 and was part of the negotiating team in the lead up to the 1998 Belfast Agreement. He also worked for the third-world charity Goal based in Dún Laoghaire, and travelled to more than 10 countries before his retirement in 2018. A model of a small boat with several figures depicting migrants inside can be seen on top of the loyalist bonfire. Photograph: Getty Photograph: Getty Racism has become a 'major problem across the jurisdiction, North and South', according to Adams, who expressed concerns about the shift within elements of loyalism to the far right. Earlier this week, a report by a counter-extremism organisation found there was an increasing cross-Border co-operation between anti-immigrant figures in the Republic and loyalist groups in Northern Ireland. 'All those overt symbols of racism, such as Moygashel, are horrifying but we have to consider it has spread far, far deeper than that; there's all the casual stuff too,' he says. 'It's a deep concern and we tend to consider it as a far smaller problem than it actually is – but I think it's getting worse.' Latest figures show that just 3.5 per cent (65,600 people) of the North's population are from a minority ethnic group; that compares with 18.3 per cent in England and Wales, and 12.9 per cent in Scotland. Yet British right-wing political parties such as Reform UK and its leader, Nigel Farage , are appealing to some within loyalism, according to Adams, who believe the 'imaginary problems' on immigration. 'There's plenty of fertile ground out there for the likes of a Farage,' he adds. 'There is an idea in some parts, to make this place as unattractive as possible. It is a tactic, in a broad sense, to thwart reconciliation so that no Irish government would touch it with a barge pole. 'It's self-defeating in the extreme, I think.' In Moygashel, the villagers are preparing for the evening ahead on a hot July day. Teenage girls sit on footpaths while a lady in a wheelchair is looking forward to the events over the Twelfth. 'We've a Scottish [Orange Order] lodge arriving here tomorrow, they'll parade here, it'll be a great week,' says one man. 'There'll always be people who'll complain about the Moygashel bonfire ... but we love our village. This is all part of our culture.'


BBC News
10-07-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Church leaders condemn bonfire effigy of refugees in small boat
An effigy of refugees in a boat on top of a bonfire in County Tyrone has been described as inhuman by the leader of the Church of effigy, a model of a small boat with several figures inside on top of a banner, has received widespread condemnation from bonfire, in Moygashel, is due to be lit on Thursday John McDowell said it was "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." Bonfires are lit annually in some unionist areas across Northern Ireland in July to usher in the Twelfth of July, the main date in the parading majority are lit on the Eleventh Twelfth commemorates the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when the Protestant King William III defeated Catholic King James II."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," added the archbishop. Dr David Clements, senior Methodist minister, has told BBC Radio Ulster's Evening Extra programme that the effigy should be removed from the top of a bonfire in County Tyrone before it set Bonfire Committee has said that the bonfire "topper" should not be seen as "racist, threatening or offensive" and it is "expressing our disgust at the ongoing crisis that is illegal immigration".


Al Jazeera
10-07-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Bonfire effigy of migrant vessel widely condemned in Northern Ireland
Bonfire effigy of migrant vessel widely condemned in Northern Ireland NewsFeed Plans to burn an effigy of migrants in a boat as part of Twelfth of July celebrations has been widely condemned as racist and threatening by politicians and public figures in Northern Ireland. Video Duration 02 minutes 38 seconds 02:38 Video Duration 01 minutes 01 seconds 01:01 Video Duration 02 minutes 55 seconds 02:55 Video Duration 00 minutes 21 seconds 00:21 Video Duration 01 minutes 05 seconds 01:05 Video Duration 01 minutes 03 seconds 01:03 Video Duration 01 minutes 31 seconds 01:31