LAST UPDATE | 11 Jul 2023
AN EFFIGY OF Sinn Féin Vice President Michelle O’Neill has been attached to a bonfire in County Tyrone today ahead of annual loyalist celebrations.
Photos of the display were posted in a Facebook group called ‘Loyalist Eastvale Avenue Bonfire Dungannon’.
An earlier post in the group said that the fire is to be lit at 10:30pm.
Police in Northern Ireland are aware of material placed on the bonfire.
In a statement, the PSNI said: “Police are treating this as a hate crime and are liaising with community representatives with a view to having the material removed.”
Bonfires will be lit in loyalist areas across Northern Ireland tonight to usher in the main date in the Protestant loyal order parading season.
Some of the pyres, mainly constructed by stacking wooden pallets, have already been torched in recent nights.
Most of the estimated 250 bonfires pass off every year without incident, but a number continue to be the source of controversy.
On Saturday, a bonfire in Moygashel, Co Tyrone was lit with an Irish tricolour and a poster of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on the top of it.
Police are treating that incident as a hate crime.
The towering pyre, themed as an anti-Northern Ireland Protocol bonfire, attracted attention online after a boat was placed on the top of it.
By Saturday evening, an Irish tricolour and a republican flag, as well as a picture of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar, had been added on the boat.
DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson said on Monday that he believes the overwhelming majority of unionists oppose the placing of an Irish flag and a picture of the Taoiseach on the loyalist bonfire.
He said that the actions were wrong, regardless of opinions on the protocol.
“I think that what happened in burning the flag of our neighbouring state and burning the poster of Leo Varadkar was wrong,” he told RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.
“It is disrespectful. If people want to earn respect and have respect for their own identity and culture then they have got to show respect for others and I don’t think that what happened and these things that were burned on the bonfire are right.
“I think that is the view of the overwhelming majority of unionists.”
Additional reporting by the Press Association
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say