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POLICE IN DERRY are investigating after placards referring to ‘Soldier F’ were set alight on a bonfire in the Bogside area of the city last night.
Soldier F, the former British soldier facing charges over his role in the killings of two people on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972, is due to appear in court in a few weeks’ time.
The PSNI received a number of reports regarding “offensive material” on the bonfire in the Bogside, built to mark the Catholic Feast of the Assumption.
“As a police service we recognise the hurt and frustration that this can cause. The display of this material has been perceived as offensive and distasteful,” the PSNI said in a statement.
“We are treating this as a hate incident and will continue to gather evidence as this evening continues. Where crimes have been committed and suspects identified they will be brought before the courts.”
Last night’s events in the Bogside come after a flute band paraded close to the scene of Bloody Sunday with a Parachute Regiment symbol and the letter “F” on the sleeves of their uniforms on Sunday.
The Antrim-based Apprentice Boys band were escorted by police through the city on the march and police then made efforts to identify members of the band involved.
On Tuesday, the PSNI met with political representatives in two separate meetings to discuss Saturday’s parade. The meetings were described as “robust and constructive”.
“We explained what police did and why. We also listened carefully to all the strong concerns that have been raised about how we carried out our actions,” PSNI Deputy Chief Constable Stephen Martin said.
The meetings came after bricks and bottles were thrown at police during disturbances in the Bogside area of Derry on Monday night.
24 petrol bombs and six paint bombs were also thrown in the streets and that police patrols came under attack from youths throwing missiles including bricks and bottles, according to the PSNI.
Between 30 and 40 people were involved in the disturbances which lasted from early evening into the night.
This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Battle of the Bogside, a three-day riot in the city which saw the people of the Bogside area erect barricades to prevent the Royal Ulster Constabulary entering.
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They dont seem to have any problem with irish flags or effigies of Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness being burned funnily enough
@Emmet O Riordan: yeah! it does seem a little one sided, one thing for sure if there was a border poll. who would fancy inheriting that mess.
@Daithi Ó Raghallaigh: they would probably say the same with all the drug feuding etc in Dublin
@Emmet O Riordan: yeah but that’s part of unionist “culture” so it’s different
@Emmet O Riordan: exactly what I was going to say.
Some on both sides are equally as bad, full of hatred and stuck in the past, fueled by DUP and Provisional SF’s refusal to take their seats in Stormont
@Stephen Kearon: They really are stuck in the past – building bonfires and burning the “flegs” of the other side is equally childish and primal. Sit down and sort it the fuk out, marching up and down the road, taunting the other side, isn’t gonna achieve much, either is banging on about past injustices.
@Stephen Kearon: “Thatcher deserves our gratitude for ensuring that provo thugs and criminals who didn’t like prison food deservedly died painfully.” – Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Kearon on the Irish hunger-strikers 2013.
@Stephen Kearon: I think it is you that is stuck with the past Stephen
You got 40 votes in the last election. Your own people overwhelmingly rejected you and you won’t go away
Here you are promoting the ‘breaking of election promises’ which was part of the election pact by SF and its voters. It it any wonder then that NO ONE outside of your extended family voted for you. Even your so called friends did not vote for you
You should spend more time trying to repair your toxic name in your area rather than been on here encouraging politicians to break election promises
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: Can someone please explain why we’re all in such a hurry to inherit this?
@Cormac Ó Braonáin: Stephen got 40 votes in his last election. If you take extended family into it, nobody out of that votes for him
@Stephen Kearon: unlike your previous FF party SF have stuck by the election pledges and continue to call for the already agreed policies to
Be implemented.
I can understand how someone like you can expect a party to form a government with those who are coated in the stench of corruption, RHI, NAMA, red sky, etc or the stench of bigotry as in the refusal of LIOFA grant, LBGT rights, language rights etc which are freely available on rest of these islands.
When you want to deal with the issues they please feel free to engage, otherwise join your like narrow minded folk this post actually about?
@James Brady: They are probably same the same with all the drug feuds etc in Dublin the last while
@Stephen Kearon: Provisional SF, very good hadn’t heard that before. Do you not believe all our citizens haven’t the right to be married Stephen?, Or that the RHI scandal was all fabricated maybe, Or is it that you don’t believe DUP should honour conditions of Good Friday Agreement. Interested to know which of these points Sinn Fein should ignore first and encourage people to forget about?
@James Brady: We’re one island and half the people in the North see themselves as Irish so shouldn’t turn our back on them because it may be difficult.
@James Brady: Because the Country that was Ireland should not have been ‘carved up’ by the 1920 Ireland Act that paved the way for partition.
@James Brady: sorry. You once had it and sold it out. Now coming home to roost.
@Paul O’Sullivan: Its still Ireland, we just have an occupying power in our 6 counties that need to keep out of Ireland’s affairs.
@Mick paisley: you sure your first name is Mick?
@Mick paisley: All marches based on triumphant victories should be banned. Imagine the Allies parading through Berlin or some other part of Germany. Celebrate being Catholic/Protestant, George’s Day/ St. Patrick’s Day.
@Fred Cahill: There is no occupying power in Ireland. Following the GFA, the 26 counties have no claim to the North and the people of Northern Ireland democratically accepted that NI is part of the UK. Both states on this island overwhelming voted to accept this.
@Doire: as a matter of interest is it not more correct to refer to the Gerry Adams faction as Provisional Sinn Fein? Many non PSF republicans e.g. Republican Sinn Fein refer to them as PSF.
On a related note I never understood why the Provos decided to name their political wing after a party founded by a monacharist that eventually split into what is now FF and FG.
@Paddy J: The GFA is a Peace Accord. With the condition that the People of Ireland have a right to Reunification at a point in time when asked for and decided by the vote of people. As part of it the Constitution of the Republic of Ireland was modified to remove the claim to the six counties but that was with the understanding that the People of Ireland can decide otherwise. If the GFA falls apart due to Brexit, the claim to the six counties will be reinstated. As of now the 6 counties is under British rule therefore still occupied. The GFA provides a peaceful mechanism to remove British Rule.
@Stephen Kearon: so are you from cork or Dublin. I have to laugh at some people in the south. 2 national ist bonfires and it’s a hate crime. Hundreds of loyalist bonfires go on line and have a look at them. And it’s like nothing to see here move on
This is in response to the Apprentice Boys who wore the letter F stitched into their sleeves last week. I didn’t see the PSNI investigate that as hatred.
This is very depressing and worrying. We have not seen so many loyalist emblems and flags burned by “republicans” in a long time. It certainly constitutes hate crime; as do the recent loyalist bonfires. I can’t help feeling that the genie was let out of the bottle a few days ago when a loyalist flute band marched through Derry with the insignia of the parachute regiment with a large “F” denoting support for soldier F on their uniforms. Worse still was the behavior of the DUP who appeared to support the marchers and offered no condemnation. The nationalists of Derry have bent over backwards to accommodate the Apprentice Boys in recent years, and, to be fair, they have largely reciprocated. That relationship had been badly damaged now. There are clear echoes of 50 years ago here. I do not think there will be a return to anyway near the same level of violence, but serious social unrest now appears very likely particularly in the context of Brexit.
@Joe Nolan: These were placards. Written material. Words. Read carefully what the PSNI said. It was reported to them by someone who claimed they were offended that written material was placed on a bonfire. They have to treat it as a possible hate crime because the person who reported it claimed it was offensive and distasteful. The main issue here should be the fact that the PSNI feel compelled to investigate tripe like this. They will ‘investigate’ for a few days, quietly conclude that no crime was committed and thank the complainants for reporting their concerns They should also thank them for visiting 2019 and wish them a safe trip back to the 1700′s.
@Tommy Roche:
Fair enough. The photograph I saw earlier showed a bonfire festooned with flags. I was referring to these flags rather than the written placards. I would consider burning of flags – tricolors, union flags, papal flags or Ulster flags – a hate crime; I would not consider written placards denouncing Soldier F to be in the same category.
So the psni will run away from a few teenage thugs throwing stones and will let them burn the the flag of the Republic while giving protection to a flute band supporting an alleged murderer of unarmed civilians, but how to bring people before the courts for burning a placard with the letter “F” on it? Things are really going to kick off again in my opinion!
@liam whelan: it would indeed be a strange thing if the police took young nationalists to court for burning support Soldier F flags when they refused to act when these were being put up by loyalist bigots in the first place and when they took 47 years (still pending) to bring even one soldier to court for killing the 14 people on Bloody Sunday. Justice is a bit one sided methinks.
@Larry Doherty: Lets keep things in perspective – the biggest hate crime was the massacre of innocent civil rights marchers on Bloody Sunday itself, something which has poisoned relations and led to many more deaths on these islands over the past 47 years. Nazis who carried out similar massacres in Europe during World War 2 were pursued to the end of their days even when they were “elderly former soldiers” who the British and DUP now seek to exonerate.
It doesn’t help when the PSNI don’t exercise balance in their language. When loyalists do it, the community needs dialogue and understanding. The Apprentice Band with certain members wearing deliberately provocative attire as they are marched (and escorted by PSNi) by an area where unarmed civil rights protesters were murdered need a talking to. But when Republicans vent their frustration and hurt as a result of this provocationt and it is called ‘hate’ crime.
I can see this escalating while history repeats itself.
Are the DUP not painting themselves into a corner with this bigoted and blind support for Soldier F and others. They must know that this soldier’s actions have already come up in previous court cases and were examined extensively in the Saville Inquiry where it was alleged that Soldier F had shot as many as six people on Bloody Sunday. In fact, a judge recently heavily castigated Soldier F in a compensation case taken by the family of a man wounded by him on Bloody Sunday. Mr Justice McAlinden said: “The court has no hesitation in finding as a fact that the behaviour of the solider who shot the deceased was exceptional and contumelious, and was imbued with a degree of malevolence and flagrancy which was truly exceptional.” This was Soldier F.
https://www.itv.com/news/utv/2019-06-11/family-of-man-shot-on-bloody-sunday-to-be-awarded-160k/
Without prejudging the forthcoming trial, there is a fairly good chance that Soldier F may be convicted of murder. What will the DUP have to say then? It will certainly show them as condoning murder and leaves them no room to be pointing the finger at others.
Ban all bonfires
@Emmett Currie: ohh that’ll work
@Emmett Currie: they should all be burnt.
Unionist hate incidents: KULTURE
Nationalist hate incidents: BIGOTRY
The PSNI need to stop being so one-sided and crack down on all of these incidents together
Of course there is hate that animal murdered people on the streets of Derry
If Sinn Fein posters and Irish tricolours are burned repeatedly without recourse in unionist bonfires then this should be allowed. Tit for tat, but that’s life
Will somebody please check on Patrick to see if he’s OK, Sinn Fein ate being discussed here and he hasn’t commented.
This is just a general comment, but shouldn’t there be some objective standards as to what constitutes offensive/hate speech instead of the police having to investigate everything that a minority of misanthropes choose actively to find “offensive”. To use a reductio ad absurdum argument, someone could just as easily say “I find the fact that they find that offensive, offensive, so why aren’t the police investigating them?”
Sorry, but a bonfire to mark the Catholic Feast of the Assumption? ?????
They’re right too. Burn them and put him in a cell
A lot of “Irish” people commenting on this need their hard drives checked. Weirdos.
FTQ
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