Three bonfires were set alight in Co Derry on Saturday night and are being treated as “sectarian-motivated hate crimes” by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).
The bonfires were lit in Bligh’s Lane in Creggan, on Lecky Road in the Bogside and on Corrody Road in the Top of the Hill area of the Waterside.
Hundreds of people, including children, gathered to watch the bonfire on the Lecky Road in the Bogside, some from vantage points.
Fireworks were also let off before the bonfire was lit.
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Union Jack, Northern Irish and Israeli flags as well as a photo of the First Minister Michelle O’Neill were among those attached to the bonfire in the Bogside.
Other flags, poppy wreaths, banners, political material, sashes, football shirts and other items were also placed on the bonfires.
Bonfires, traditional in republican areas in Derry, were lit to mark the Feast of the Assumption on August 15th.
Earlier in the week, on August 13th, the materials, including pallets, to be used for the bonfire on the Lecky Road were removed from underneath the Lecky flyover in the Bogside by the Department for Infrastructure (DfI), with police present.
PSNI area commander of Derry City and Strabane, chief superintendent Gillian Kearney, said during this operation, a number of other items were uncovered including six poppy wreaths and a WWI commemoration banner.
Police enquiries into how these items came to be there are under way.
O’Neill welcomed the removal of bonfire materials in the Bogside.
According to the BBC, O’Neill said: “I commend those who have removed the pallets and everything else, all the material, because none of us wants to see these anti-social bonfires in our community.”
“We need to find ways to celebrate our culture or mark occasions, but don’t do so in a way that endangers your community, that endangers the homes around you and I think it was right and proper that this material was removed,” she told reporters gathered outside during a visit to an Irish-language arts and cultural centre in Derry on Wednesday.
However, the bonfire was rebuilt and set alight on Saturday night.
The PSNI said enquiries are “ongoing in relation to all of these incidents and all offences will be investigated accordingly.”
Chief superintendent Kearney said, “the material placed on bonfires in the city is disgraceful and is to be condemned.
“It will have no impact on the work we do every single day to make a difference and help the communities we serve.”
Sinn Féin MP John Finucane described the burning of images of O’Neill on bonfires as “anti-democratic,” in a statement.
He said, “these bonfires are not republican. They are anti-people, anti-community, anti-democratic and are, in their hate filed sectarianism, the very antithesis of Irish republicanism.
“These bonfires disgracefully imitate the most offensive aspects of loyalist bonfires in their sectarianism, their criminality and recklessness.
“The small number of young people and children involved, often manipulated by others who stand in the shadows, are not representative of the majority of young people who are engaged in positive and productive cultural activities all year round.”
“We see the future of this island in the positive and inclusive celebration of Irish culture and identity,” he said, adding that the events in Derry on Saturday night “can have no part in that future.”
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