A loyalist bonfire decorated with an effigy of asylum seekers was burnt in County Tyrone last night. 

The Police Service of Northern Ireland have confirmed they are investigating the eleventh night celebration as a hate incident. 

The bonfire was widely condemned by politicians across the constitutional divide; the DUP urged the community to take the effigies down and UUP leader Mike Nesbitt described the bonfire as “sickening”. 

However, Moygashel Bonfire Committee rejected accusations that the bonfire was "racist, threatening or offensive", adding the effigies were there to express their “disgust at the ongoing crisis that is illegal immigration".

On Newstalk Breakfast, Sinn Féin Senator Conor Murphy described it as “fairly depressing” that things like this happen every year. 

“I think there was a headline in the Irish News saying this morning that this is a mess of unionism’s creation and they need to sort it out,” he said. 

“Every year, despite all of the pleas and the efforts of various agencies, we’re left with these depressing issues around 12th of July marches. 

“It really needs to be resolved.” 

The bonfire in Moygashel, Co Tyrone. Picture by: Alamy.com.

The former Stormont Minister for Finance continued that the bonfire was “very obviously a hate crime”.  

“It was called out by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh,” he said. 

“He had to step into a vacuum where there was no leadership being provided from within unionism’s political classes. 

“He called it out as racist and threatening, that it was a disgrace and didn’t reflect the views of the vast majority of people in the area.” 

Confidence in policing

Senator Murphy added that he was disappointed that PSNI declined to step in and take action before the bonfire was lit. 

“We’re faced with a situation where a number of weeks ago PSNI arrested an 83 year old woman for putting a Palestinian sticker on a bank ATM in the centre of Belfast,” he said. 

“They sent a group of four or five PSNI people to arrest her, put her in a car and take her away. 

“Then we see this very obvious display of hate crime, of contaminants being spread into the air, of threats to power supplies to two of our main hospitals. 

“They should have intervened.” 

Senator Murphy added that both bonfires and Orange marches should be carried out in an “orderly and controlled manner”. 

“I think the vast majority of the community here, beyond the nationalist community, cannot understand how the police can take action on certain issues,” he said. 

“PSNI are struggling to recruit from the nationalist community and these types of decision, set against a decision to arrest an old woman who was putting a sticker on an ATM, damages confidence in the PSNI right across the community. 

“I think they really need to sit down and consider their approach.”

Main image: Effigies of migrants burn atop a bonfire at Moygashel, Tyrone. Picture by: Alamy.com.