Since many of you commented such beautiful things about my thread on ordinary people of Belfast yesterday, linking you to @katrinamcdonnell.bsky.social’s perfect encapsulation of what is best about our city (including her and the work she’s been doing tirelessly). Thank you for reading her words

Once again, the community and volunteer sector have been left to pick up the pieces, a sector that is already over stretched and deliberately underfunded. Meanwhile, well funded gangs who claim to represent community and the interest of "ordinary people" are tearing the city apart.

“Some”

We have a legal obligation to disarm and disband - even if we have yet to do so - I’m not sure we would to a) apply a US prism to our own context b) simply make it worse

I’m told that unlike previously reported, it was Livingston, not Glasgow. Unsure how that changes the events, but I’ll mention it regardless.

See, not assimilating with local customs. The Irish way to deal with rain is to be absolutely unprepared at all times.

It was always here even before Musk became involved; he would comment a posteriori or after the first days in the last two years. He didn’t create it, he tapped into something that was already here. But he encouraged, unequivocally provided support and so-called arguments. That’s unjustifiable

As I mentioned before, with screenshot of his latest report, the UK continues to fan the flames with a supposedly demonstrated assessment that migrants, esp from MENA, are a terror threat. Only 2 paragraphs from Hall’s report addresses XRW violence only to call it sporadic & of little consequence

Also please - language matters. Talking about migrants needed in the health care field etc is unnecessary. Migrants, wherever they’re from, whatever they do, don’t need to prove a particular contribution to society to be worthy. The fact they exist inherently provides them with dignity.

As I was saying yesterday, it’s ordinary people stepping up to the plate. But at the slightest moment of reprieve, exhaustion is being felt.

Palestinian restaurant in Derry, Jerusalem, issued a long statement yesterday. Here is part of it:

Seen this shared by the Derry chapter of United Against Racism - a person of colour was reported carrying a sword (!) in Brooke Park. Police ran to lift him. He was carrying an umbrella.

This is also why we all know this is temporary. While a huge element of it may be opportunistic, such as channeling anger after an act of violence, those are however well organised and planned behind the scenes long before the practical manifestation takes place.

A particularly grim element is that Stephen Ogilvie, the stabbing victim whose ordeal ignited the pogrom flame, had been the victim of torture by a drug gang in Glasgow that boasted of ties to the UVF in Belfast. Loyalist violence in his name has been quiet on that one too.

Night *relatively* quiet, but never of course. Republican presence out west seems to have a deterrent effect. Another home burnt on the Shore Road in North Belfast, said to have been belonging to an Indian family. Photo by Spicebag.

Gathering now in South Belfast.

PSNI actually knew about that long list of targets for almost a year but refused to investigate. Many reports had been made by the Accountability Project NI with no response. As we turned into 2026, the group already reported an escalation including in referring to ethnic minorities as “animals”

For those saying “they’ve lost control”, no, they always had it. They just made a choice. bsky.app/profile/k-in...

PSNI actually knew about that long list of targets for almost a year but refused to investigate. Many reports had been made by the Accountability Project NI with no response. As we turned into 2026, the group already reported an escalation including in referring to ethnic minorities as “animals”

The PSNI is now advising ethnic minority health care workers to comply with white supremacist check points claiming to “verify immigration status” (against what?) this is despicable. Another way the police entirely facilitates the pogroms.

Lara is a dear friend, please read

In case you hadn’t seen, yesterday afternoon, a 4 pages long list of extremely detailed addresses to target started to come out of far right pages. We have all come to PPR’s conclusion: where we’re told is just pure chaos, is actually coordinated, organised and directed violence. It’s terrorism.

Refugee and housing advocacy organisation PPR and their sibling Anaka - the refugee women’s org hosting the fundraiser - have written to the First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, and the Deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, to demand state intervention in the forced displacement of minorities

As if Belfast is not one of our Irish cities. As if Belfast isn't the micro distillation of the hate that fed religious abuses across this island. As if Belfast isn't the punch drunk but still standing, still caring, still laughing example to us all how to endure and win our humanity back.

I’m creased

Saw someone from the ROI comment on news of the pogroms with “who expected anything less - a place of tribal feuds and hate.” It is my literal job to uphold international human rights law. It is my moral duty to my city to correct the record however.

The PSNI has the power to suspend this content and access to it without having to plead and wait.

If you’re in Belfast, sharing that public transport (Metro for now, unsure about Railways) will finish service around 5-5:30 at the latest. Some offices will likely close early, but even if you’re driving, factor that in

When loyalists were burning nationalist communities out of their homes, they never tried to justify their action by anything but colonial enforcement. This time, we legitimise. As if it was any different.

The police has long refused to use the Telecommunications Act that provides for a ban on such posts and content. As I said yesterday, it hasn’t featured in bail conditions for those who had received a sentence, custodial or not

If you can access the video below, this is a speech from @clairehanna.bsky.social in Parliament yesterday, talking about lifting children out of bed from their burning homes - “we have seen this movie too many times”. She also blames politicians fanning the flames of racism and division.

“Some well-known paramilitary figures were seen on the streets during the unrest, but sources say they mainly stayed back and watched as dozens of largely young men, masked and with hoods up, went door to door smashing windows and burning homes.” They were there. Headline is terribly misleading

Looking at daft.ie. Looking at prices. Looking back. Looking at demand. Looking at the government. Looking at homelessness rates. Zohran:

Photo by Gareth Miller as public transport was suspended.

Yesterday, my friend and photographer @moochinphotoman.bsky.social shared those photos of the Ballymacarett area of East Belfast as he supported a Ukrainian neighbour who has been targeted.

Thank you for those on my feed sharing their joy at the Knicks victory, this is a much needed breath of fresh air

Wow. @ox.ac.uk debate society is now holding a discussion on “the West (sic) is right to be suspicious of Islam”, with a panel comprised of Tommy Robinson and Jacob Rees-Mogg amongst others. The university should step in. Someone once in custody under terrorism legislation, please.

Belfast’s newly installed Mayor, 30 year old Róis-Máire Donnelly, was informed by police she had been the target of death threats on Tuesday night for opposing the pogroms www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/belfast...

Luqman Saeed, an academic with Ulster University, has shared his personal experience of the pogroms the last two days, describing his situation as a de facto house arrest, under violence caused by an absence of leadership www.lrb.co.uk/blog/2026/ju...

Things always ramp up in July. This is only early June.

Full statement from the family of Stephen Ogilvie, the victim of the senseless stabbings: “please do not do this in our name. We do not share the same values.” A family still at the bedside of a man in critical condition has to issue statements to stop incitement. Abhorrent.

On CCE today, please read friend and fellow activist Gemma McSherry in the @irishexaminer.bsky.social talking about the paramilitary / rioting right of passage for young boys in face coverings egged on by similarly masked men. And facilitated by a disinterested police force.

Apologies for typos, I am very, very tired

There’s something else I want to address and this is about the photo below. The graffiti appeared a few days ago, before the onset of the pogroms, in a UDA-controlled North Belfast estate, Rathcoole. This isn’t ordinary, despite the usual spelling errors.

The aftermath in Newtownabbey a couple of hours ago. Photo by Kevin Scott for the Belfast Telegraph.

A protest at City Hall never materialised. Meanwhile, this popped up in South Belfast, by Tates Avenue

Human Rights First joins local human rights groups in Northern Ireland in condemning the knife attack in Belfast on Tuesday that left a man seriously injured, and in decrying the ensuing violence and intimidation directed at immigrant communities. humanrightsfirst.org/library/huma...

My auntie lives in Drogheda and sent me a video of BBC Newsline. As broadcast ended at 4pm today (“we are sorry for the inconvenience”) they wrapped with a video of an empty Belfast city centre. Playing “ghost town” by The Specials. Absolutely insane.

This video of Jeremy Corbyn addressing Parliament earlier today - refusing to nuance - shows a visibly distressed @clairehanna.bsky.social , a MP for South Belfast. This is where we are now. Claire I am sorry. www.instagram.com/reel/DZaBFgI...

Brian Lincoln, a local photojournalist, just posted a short video of Belfast city centre during rush hour just now. Completely empty. Have we become a sundown town?