Opinion
10 Jun 26

Michael Magee on Belfast riots: "We used to be the target, we used to be the minority"

Michael Magee. Copyright Miguel Ruiz.

People were forced to flee their homes as multiple cars and homes were set alight during serious disorder last night in the wake of a knife attack in the city.

Irish writer Michael Magee has condemned the protests that occurred in Belfast last night.

The protests in Belfast, driven by anti-immigrant sentiment, took place on Tuesday. Disorder erupted after police charged a man, whom they identified as Sudanese, with attempted murder following an assault on a local man on Monday.

"Just watched a family being rescued from their home live on Sky News in North Belfast," said Magee online.

"The houses at the end of the street had been on fire for a significant amount of time, the fire was spreading along the row towards the house, the family was trapped in, but the family wouldn't leave; they were hiding, windows smashed, terrified of the loyalist mob waiting for them at the bottom of the street."

"This family didn't stab anybody, they didn't hurt or abuse or do anything to deserve what they're being put through, they are simply a man and a woman and a child trying to live and make a life for themselves, as is their right."

Magee compared the scenes in Belfast on Tuesday to those during the Troubles. "We used to be the target, we used to be the minority," he continues, "it's so important to remember the connections we share with people who are attacked and driven out of their homes based on religion or the colour of their skin."

Founder of Black and Irish, Leon Diop, was in Belfast both at the time of the attack and of the subsequent violence.

"What we saw was a lot of fear and anger whipped up, and a lot of anger being pointed towards migrant communities by certain public figures," he said.

"I want to speak to young people who are engaging in these riots directly. You're angry, and you're really frustrated, and that's totally understandable because you've been failed, you've been let down."

"But you haven't been let down and failed by migrants. They're not the ones who are under-investing in services to help you through mental health crises; they're not the ones underinvesting in housing, making your future look a bit more precarious."

"What we're seeing is them being scapegoated, and them being targeted with serious hate," he adds, "and that same hate is making people engage in the same type of violence that this man did on Monday night."

First Minister of Northern Ireland, Michelle O'Neill, shared her reaction to the violence online.

"The attack in North Belfast was heinous and wrong," she wrote.

"But there are dangerous attempts to exploit that to target and attack innocent people who are simply trying to live, work and raise their families here."

"Racism, intimidation and violence are wrong wherever they occur. There can be no excuse and no justification for these attacks tonight."

Masked men set commercial bins alight and pushed them into a Gliser bus on the Newtownards Road in the east of Belfast as a large crowd gathered in the area.

Roads were blocked, and a vehicle was set alight on Lendrick Street, leading to residents being removed from houses after they caught fire.

A man is now set to appear in court charged with attempted murder over Monday's stabbing attack.

The victim - a man aged in his 40s - remains in a serious condition in hospital receiving treatment for serious eye, face and back wounds.

The 30-year-old accused is also charged with possession of an article with a blade or point in a public place and making threats to kill. He is due to appear at Belfast's Magistrates' Court later today.