Police in Northern Ireland are treating several incidents involving items placed on bonfires in Derry as sectarian-motivated hate crimes.
According to the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), flags, poppy wreaths, banners, political material, sashes, and football shirts were placed on pyres in the city. Bonfires were lit on Saturday evening, August 15, in nationalist areas including Bligh’s Lane in Creggan, Lecky Road in the Bogside, and Corrody Road in the Top of the Hill area of the Waterside.
The traditional August 15 fires coincide with the Catholic Feast of the Assumption and the anniversary of the introduction of internment without trial during the Troubles.
Prior to the events, Department for Infrastructure staff removed pallets and poppy wreaths from a bonfire site in the Bogside area. During an operation on August 13 to clear pallets from underneath the Lecky flyover in the Bogside, authorities uncovered six poppy wreaths and a World War One commemoration banner.
Chief Superintendent Gillian Kearney, PSNI Commander for Derry City and Strabane, condemned the placement of the materials. Police have launched an appeal for anyone who believes the recovered wreaths or banner belong to them to contact authorities via the 101 service, quoting reference RM26049446.
Sinn Féin strongly condemned the burning of images of First Minister Michelle O’Neill on one of the fires. North Belfast MP John Finucane criticized the actions, describing them as “anti-democratic and anti-republican.”
“These bonfires disgracefully imitate the most offensive aspects of loyalist bonfires in their sectarianism, their criminality and recklessness,” Mr Finucane said. He added that the small number of young people and children involved were not representative of the broader community.
Police previously attributed disorder in Derry on Wednesday evening—which involved a petrol bomb being thrown at officers—to the earlier removal of material from the Bogside bonfire site. Inquiries into the incidents are ongoing.
Article and image source: breakingnews.ie
