London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Wednesday, Oct 08, 2025

Northern Ireland’s deputy leader urges calm before loyalist parades

Northern Ireland’s deputy leader urges calm before loyalist parades

Michelle O’Neill concerned about site of unionist bonfire, as tensions rise over post-Brexit trading rules
Northern Ireland’s deputy first minister has urged people to celebrate peacefully before the start of the loyalist parade season, as tensions increase over post-Brexit trading arrangements.

Sinn Féin’s Michelle O’Neill – who is deputy to the new first minister, Paul Givan of the Democratic Unionist party (DUP), in the power-sharing administration – called particularly for calm over a bonfire set up in a contentious site in north Belfast.

Bonfires are traditionally lit in unionist areas on 11 July before parades that take place the following day to mark the victory of the Protestant King William of Orange over King James II, a Catholic, at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.

One of the bonfires has been set up in the unionist Tiger’s Bay area, adjoining the nationalist New Lodge community, with the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) having refused to protect contractors if they removed the construction, citing the risk of disorder.

Two Stormont ministers, Nichola Mallon of the SDLP and Sinn Féin’s Deirdre Hargey, launched court proceedings to force the PSNI to act, but without success.

Speaking to the BBC on Sunday, O’Neill said the court ruling was disappointing. She said: “Everybody is entitled to celebrate their culture, but this bonfire is on an interface area that draws all the heightened tension. I met with the residents and they feel under siege, their homes have been attacked and that is not acceptable in this day and age.”

The deputy first minister urged calm: “I hope it is a peaceful weekend, I hope it is a calm weekend. All of us in political leadership have a duty to try to ensure that is the case.

“I would call on everyone, enjoy your celebrations, do what it is that you do to enjoy your culture but there is no room for attacking people’s homes. I just hope we have a weekend that we are not looking at the scenes we witnessed a number of weeks ago when we saw tensions in interface areas, none of us want to see that.”

She added: “My message is clear, stay home, don’t be involved in street disorder, that is not where anybody should be.”

More than 160 bonfires are expected to be lit on 12 July, the main date in the Protestant loyalist order parading season. Last year, the parades were cancelled because of Covid, and they will be limited in size this year.

An additional factor is concern among unionists at the implementation of the Northern Ireland protocol, which sets out post-Brexit trade arrangements for the region, including checks on some goods between Northern Ireland the rest of the UK.

Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, the new DUP leader, has demanded the protocol be removed, calling it the “greatest threat to the economic integrity of the United Kingdom in any of our lifetimes”.

Donaldson is the DUP’s third leader in three months, during a period of turmoil within the main unionist party. Arlene Foster was forced out by an internal party revolt mainly inspired by worries about the protocol, and her successor, Edwin Poots, resigned after just 21 days in response to a fresh rebellion, triggered by terms he agreed over a deal to revive the Northern Ireland assembly.

After visiting last week, Labour’s leader, Keir Starmer, described the situation in Northern Ireland as fragile, and said there was considerable mistrust over the protocol.

The protocol is also inflaming tensions between the UK and EU, with Boris Johnson and his Brexit minister, David Frost, accusing Brussels of an overzealous interpretation of its policies, while the EU says the UK is failing to meet its obligations under a deal it signed.

Starmer said there was a feeling in Northern Ireland that Johnson “mis-sold” the deal “and he’s now dumping responsibility for making it work”.
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
France: Less Than a Month After His Appointment, the New French Prime Minister Resigns
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán stated that Hungary will not adopt the euro because the European Union is falling apart.
Sarah Mullally Becomes First Woman Appointed Archbishop of Canterbury
Mayor in western Germany in intensive care after stabbing
Australian government pays Deloitte nearly half a million dollars for a report built on fabricated quotes, fake citations, and AI-generated nonsense.
US Prosecutors Gained Legal Approval to Hack Telegram Servers
Macron Faces Intensifying Pressure to Resign or Trigger New Elections Amid France’s Political Turmoil
Standard Chartered Names Roberto Hoornweg as Sole Head of Corporate & Investment Banking
UK Asylum Housing Firm Faces Backlash Over £187 Million Profits and Poor Living Conditions
UK Police Crack Major Gang in Smuggling of up to 40,000 Stolen Phones to China
BYD’s UK Sales Soar Nearly Nine-Fold, Making Britain Its Biggest Market Outside China
Trump Proposes Farm Bailout from Tariff Revenues Amid Backlash from Other Industries
FIFA Accuses Malaysia of Forging Citizenship Documents, Suspends Seven Footballers
Latvia to Bar Tourist and Occasional Buses to Russia and Belarus Until 2026
A Dollar Coin Featuring Trump’s Portrait Expected to Be Issued Next Year
Australia Orders X to Block Murder Videos, Citing Online Safety and Public Exposure
Three Scientists Awarded Nobel Prize in Medicine for Discovery of Immune Self-Tolerance Mechanism
OpenAI and AMD Forge Landmark AI-Chip Alliance with Equity Option
Munich Airport Reopens After Second Drone Shutdown
France Names New Government Amid Political Crisis
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
×