Debate contribution: Racially Motivated Riots

Debate contribution by Ms Paula Bradshaw on 15 June 2026.

MLA

Ms Paula Bradshaw

Party at the time

Alliance Party

Date

15 June 2026

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Matter of the Day

Heading

Racially Motivated Riots

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5613164

Read the official Assembly record

Text

Last week, we saw scenes on the streets of Belfast and beyond that do not represent who we are or who we should aspire to be. The racist riots that tore through our streets were not just an attack on bricks and mortar but a direct assault on the safety, dignity and belonging of our ethnic minority neighbours. I send my very best wishes to all those people who were displaced over the past week and to the people who were attacked on Donegall Avenue in the early hours of Sunday morning. It is absolutely deplorable that anyone's right to a family life and to privacy would be so grotesquely breached. We in the Alliance Party are clear that Belfast must be a shared city for everyone, but, right now, for many people, including our healthcare workers, students, business owners and children, that is simply not happening. Over the past week, we have seen the worst and the best of people here. I place on record my thanks to the Ormeau community and Cooke Centenary Presbyterian Church for their amazing donation drive over the weekend and thank everybody who donated. I also thank organisations such as Anaka Women's Collective for the subsequent dispersal of essential food and toiletries to people living in our city who are cowering in fear. I was at the donation centre yesterday morning, and I heard about the immense pressures, such as the need for formula milk. I saw volunteers go out and buy it out of their own pocket so that terrified new mothers who are staying in their homes can get that essential nutrition for their precious babies. How horrendous. I also condemn the reckless and malicious targeting of vulnerable people through the online posting of addresses of houses in multiple occupation. It was nothing short of a digital hit list, painting a target on the back of not just migrant workers and people from ethnic minority communities but students and short-term renters. It was not just those from ethnic minority communities who feared that they would be attacked in their home. The weaponisation of data highlights a critical vulnerability, and I thank Belfast City Council for taking down the list. I have written to the Minister for Communities to ask him urgently to review and amend section 62 of the Houses in Multiple Occupation Act (Northern Ireland) 2016. As it stands, there is a statutory requirement to publish a full, unrestricted public register of HMO addresses, including the names of managers, but that was exploited last week by racist agitators and used as a tool of intimidation. We therefore need to address the imbalance between data transparency and the right to a private life. I will address one issue that Gerry Carroll raised. Not to be contrary, but when I spoke to the PSNI on Wednesday afternoon, it had deployed 18 police officers just to the Holylands and lower Lisburn Road —

— area, where those addresses are. I then spoke to the PSNI on Friday —.

Sorry.

505 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Assessment

Not flagged

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 15:47 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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