Annual Bonfire In Northern Ireland Protests Radical Islam And Open Borders

A politically charged annual bonfire held in Northern Ireland burned the effigy of a mosque in protest of “radical Islam” and open borders this year, marking a continued shift from its frequent past demonstration against the Republic of Ireland.

This year’s Moygashel Bonfire burned a mosque replica, accompanied by banners reading “Secure Our Borders” and “End the threat of Radical Islam,” on top of the traditional tall pyre. It triggered immediate backlash from police as well as the mainstream media: Brian Neill, a 56-year-old man involved in the display has been charged with incitement to hatred after the incident and has since denied the charges.

Neill had reportedly been filmed on Wednesday evening on top of the bonfire along with masked men while he was unmasked. He said he had been asked to help correct the lopsidedness of the structure because of his experience as a tree surgeon.

The Moygashel bonfire is part of the larger Eleventh Night bonfire tradition in Northern Ireland that commemorates King William III’s victory over King James II at the 1690 Battle of the Boyne, important for its role in the Protestant Ascendancy. Eleventh Night bonfires have taken aim at the Irish Republic in the past, burning Tricolor flags and even symbols of Catholicism.

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“Had the bonfire not been lit, police would have secured the site and removed the offending material and seized it as evidence,” Police Service of Northern Ireland chief superintendent Norman Haslett said in a statement. “Hate crime has no place in our society and will not be tolerated.”

This year’s bonfire marked a continued focus on unfettered immigration, with a new emphasis on radical Islam. Last year, the Moygashel blaze featured a model boat with mannequin migrants and signs reading “Stop the Boats” and “Veterans Before Refugees.”

The Moygashel Bonfire Association insists it has a right under the law to burn the mosque effigy. “Our display may well shock, offend or outrage others, but nonetheless it is an exercise in our rights under Article 10 of the ECHR, and we note with some irony that it is the ECHR which has so often paved the way for mass illegal immigration and a failure to deport foreign criminals who have come here unlawfully, that also now protects our right to protest in robust terms against that,” the group wrote in a statement posted to its Facebook page.

The association has highlighted recent incidents of violence or threats of violence perpetrated in Northern Ireland by immigrants, including an African migrant’s savage knife attack of a 40-year-old man on a Belfast street.

“This is not an isolated crime, it is the inevitable outcome of a broken immigration policy that has ignored the safety of its people in favour of open borders,” the Moygashel Bonfire Association wrote after the attack.