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Irish Mirror
Irish Mirror
National
Keith Kelly

PSNI to investigate burning of Michelle O'Neill effigy on Twelfth bonfire as 'hate crime'

A bonfire in Co Tyrone featuring an effigy of First Minister-elect Michelle O'Neill on Tuesday is being investigated as a "hate crime" by the PSNI.

Accompanied by two Irish tricolours and a 1916 Society flag, the bonfire in Dungannon was set alight in front of spectators.

In a statement to the Irish Daily Mirror, a PSNI spokesperson said: "Officers are aware of material placed on a bonfire in Eastvale, Dungannon, on Tuesday 11th July.

Read More: Irish flag and Leo Varadkar poster set ablaze on controversial Tyrone bonfire

"Police are treating this as a hate crime and are liaising with community representatives with a view to having the material removed."

Election posters of other nationalist politicians such as Ms O'Neill, west Belfast MLA Aisling Reilly and Sinn Féin councillor Róis-Máire Donnelly. are also understood to have been attached to a bonfire in west Belfast's Forthriver area on Tuesday.

Separately in north Belfast, an effigy of Sinn Féin councillor Martin McGrann tied to a noose was burned on a bonfire with the word "scum" painted beneath.

In north Belfast, an effigy of Sinn Féin councillor Martin McGrann tied to a noose was burned on a bonfire with the word "scum" painted beneath. (Belfast Telegraph)

McGrann called on PSNI to "stand up against these displays of sectarian hatred".

In response to the effigy of Mr McGrann, Alliance Party leader Naomi Long said: "There are photos of a children’s ‘fun day’ taking place at this fire while our effigies were hanging on it. Some local businesses even sponsored it."

Sinn Féin's Gerry Kelly said of the displays: "The burning of flags, posters and effigies which included first minister-elect Michelle O’Neill, party leader Mary Lou McDonald and other political figures on bonfires is wrong, deeply offensive and is a hate crime.

"The silence from some senior unionist leaders to date has been deafening."

DUP leader Jeffrey Donaldson commented on the burnings, saying: "When republican terrorists waged a campaign of hate against people of my faith, I condemned and stood against it.

"When anyone tries to incite hate, I will call it out and stand foursquare against it."

Such overt displays of contempt for republicanism and nationalist politicians in the North are nothing new.

Only last weekend, a poster of the Taoiseach was burned on a bonfire elsewhere in Moygashel, Co Tyrone, an act which is also under investigation by the PSNI as a hate crime following an outburst of condemnation from both sides of the community.

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