Well, wasn’t that a sight to behold in Belfast city centre on Saturday afternoon when racists proudly waved the Irish flag alongside their bigoted counterparts in an anti-immigrant hate-fest? It just goes to show you that ignorance and stupidity know no borders.
It actually turned to farce when the mob, apparently led by a Dubliner who didn’t know his way around, got lost after they marched on the Islamic Centre in south Belfast.
After trashing a café on Botanic Avenue, the proud citizens ended up in the Holy Land, but were seen off by a crowd of local people from the Ormeau Road, who wanted none of these knuckle-draggers anywhere near the most ethnically-mixed part of Northern Ireland.
And for all those naive souls who were expressing wonder at this apparent display of unity between orange and green – catch a grip. This is no welcome rapprochement. This is part of a well-organised, right-wing conspiracy which is shamelessly using the horrific murders of three little girls in Southport as a vehicle for their anti-democratic, anti-foreigner hatred.
It’s not a spontaneous act of patriotic fervour across English cities like Sunderland, Liverpool and Manchester. They care nothing for the grief of the people of Southport, and even less for the bereaved families – one of whom had to appeal for the violence to stop.
Within hours of the killings, toxic and false claims that the killer was a Muslim immigrant spread online. It led to a mob surrounding a mosque, attacking police and looting a local shop.
This sort of poison – blaming ‘outsiders’ for every ill in society, suggesting children aren’t safe, and linking migrants trying to reach Britain in boats to the undermining of British values – is straight from the Nazi propaganda playbook.
It was employed to great success in Austria and Germany in the 1930s, when Jewish businesses were targeted for arson and looting. Change “Jew” to “Muslim” and you get the same result.
I hope the crowd from Dublin left their new loyalist chums with a few of their tricolours. They’ll be needed for the next Eleventh night bonfires
This sort of poison – blaming ‘outsiders’ for every ill in society, suggesting children aren’t safe, and linking migrants trying to reach Britain in boats to the undermining of British values – is straight from the Nazi propaganda playbook
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It says everything about this place when five homeless people die on the streets of Belfast in one week, but the leaders of unionism are more preoccupied with a PSNI officer who went native in south Armagh amid the jubilation of the county’s All-Ireland triumph.
You might expect this from Jim Allister, whose outrage-ometer is on a hair trigger daily. He was swift to demand an investigation by the Police Ombudsman. But he soon had company from Gavin Robinson and Doug Beattie, calling for meetings with the Chief Constable.
People reacting to the video should look in the mirror and ask themselves a simple question. Would they really get their collective knickers in a twist over the cop’s apparently reckless driving if he’d been celebrating Our Wee Country’s soccer team winning a trophy?
And while we’re at it, would all those cheering him on from the nationalist side really have had no complaints if he’d been waving a Norn Iron flag? Be honest.
There’s no doubt he deserved a stern reprimand for his careless driving, but the PSNI top brass should also consider the community role they want the police to deliver. And in that respect, he’s probably done more for community relations in south Armagh than a dozen well-meaning ecumenical projects.
One outraged caller on Nolan said there was a time when policemen weren’t safe to patrol in Camlough, and now they were there “partying”. Does anyone seriously not recognise that this is a good thing?
The Chief Constable, Jon Boutcher, said there’d be an internal enquiry but while criticising the policeman’s “irresponsible” driving and lack of professionalism and independence, he said the response would be “proportionate” and there’d be no suspensions or dismissals.
Proportionate was not the response from unionism. They have lessons about leadership to learn from Boutcher.