LAST UPDATE | 9 Jul 2023

THE PLACING OF an Irish flag and a picture of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on a loyalist bonfire in Co Tyrone has been criticised as “childish” and “not acceptable”.

The towering pyre in Moygashel attracted attention online after a boat was placed on the top of it.

By yesterday evening, an Irish tricolour and a republican flag, as well as a picture of Varadkar had been added to the boat.

On the side of the boat a banner reading “Good Friday Agreement? That ship has sailed” was hung, with a mock copy of the 1998 accord across which the words “null and void” were printed.

Given the title No Irish Sea Border Bonfire, in reference to opposition in unionist and loyalist communities to post-Brexit trading arrangements, the bonfire was lit at around 11pm after a parade and an address by loyalist activist Jamie Bryson.

Ulster Unionist leader Doug Beattie tweeted in response: “This is not acceptable, it is childish and promotes hate. Again the many are let down by a few.”

Most of the bonfires to mark Northern Ireland’s traditional 12 July celebrations will be lit on 11 July.

The Twelfth marks the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James II in the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, an act that secured a Protestant line of succession for the British crown.

There has been controversy around bonfires in previous years, with election posters and Irish flags hung from the stacks of wood, with some towering more than 100ft high.

People watch as the pyre with a boat on top, with a picture of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar and a banner that reads Good Friday Agreement ? That ship has sailed, is set alight in Moygashel near Dungannon, Co Tyrone Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Meanwhile, the annual Drumcree parade is taking place in Co Armagh today, from Carleton Street Orange Hall in Portadown to a church service at Drumcree Parish Church.

It is 25 years since the parade was first prevented from completing its traditional return route along Garvaghy Road, with the Parades Commission again refusing permission for the return leg this year.

The stand-off at Drumcree made headlines in the 1990s with nationalist residents of the Garvaghy Road resolutely opposed to the parade passing through the area, leading to violent clashes for several summers and political tensions necessitating a major security operation.

DUP MP Carla Lockhart said it was a “very sad day that 25 years on from this dispute we’re still in the same situation where Orange feet are not welcome on a particular stretch of road”.

She told the BBC’s Sunday Politics programme: “I want to see a society where our culture is respected, our identity is respected, and I think it is no big thing to ask that the Garvaghy Road Residents Association enter in to some form of mediation.

“Unfortunately for many, many years their intransigence has actually been rewarded by the Parades Commission.

“We can’t move on if there is no respect or tolerance for a 10-minute walk down a route which has changed enormously over the last 25 years.”

Most of the hundreds of bonfires constructed in loyalist neighbourhoods across Northern Ireland pass off without incident, but several continue to be the source of controversy.

In previous years, there have been complaints from nationalist and cross-community politicians about their images being placed on the fires.

It is the busiest date for the Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service which usually deals with hundreds of calls related to the towering pyres.