Debate contribution: Racist Incidents

Debate contribution by Miss Deirdre Hargey on 12 November 2024.

MLA

Miss Deirdre Hargey

Party at the time

Sinn Féin

Date

12 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Committee Business

Heading

Racist Incidents

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4658360

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I thank the Committee for the Executive Office for tabling this important motion. Over the past few months, I, along with others in the Chamber, have attended a number of anti-racism rallies in Belfast, which took place off the back of a summer of racist attacks on families, homes, places of worship, and, indeed, local businesses, which were burnt to the ground. Many of those attacks took place in my constituency of South Belfast, off the back of a hate march from the City Hall to the Belfast Islamic Centre. We saw everything that unfolded following that event. Since those attacks, we have seen incidents of racism and racist attacks continue. In the past fortnight, a young child and their mother were attacked in their own home. A few weeks before that, a nearby home was attacked, and a family's vehicle was burnt out just because they were identified on TV as having attended an anti-racism rally. These incidents did not start this summer, and it is essential that we acknowledge that when tackling the issues. According to official figures, there were 1,411 racist incidents during the 12 months that ended in June of this year, which included 891 reported racist crimes. That represents a full year before the incidents of the summer. Some have tried to correlate diversity in South Belfast with the rise in racist attacks, but diversity is never the cause of racism. Racism is fuelled by racist ideas and by people who are willing to organise and carry out attacks. Those things have to be condemned and challenged for what they are: racism, and its flip side, which is sectarianism. We must call out and deal with the fact that there was a level of organisation around the attacks. That organising is conducted by paramilitaries, as the PSNI confirmed in relation to the attacks during the summer. Indeed, an Equality Commission report on racism found that many people were reluctant to report hate crime, due to concerns that it is linked to or endorsed by loyalist paramilitaries. Despite the incidents that I have talked about, we have seen members of our communities speak out against racism and sectarianism, and they must be commended. I commend the residents of the Donegall Road who recently spoke out against a mother and their child being attacked. I commend the residents of the lower Ormeau Road whom I joined with over the summer as they drove a hate mob from their community and stood with local businesses that were attacked. I commend those who have rallied on the streets of Belfast to say no to racism and hate. Belfast and this island have been the home of anti-slavery, emancipation, anti-imperialism, civil rights and community and labour organising. We need to recapture those ideals through grassroots community organising, education, activism and community campaigning. Of course, that all needs to be supported by policy, strategy and funding. It is clear that we need political unity. We need our communities to work together to root out the causes and the manifestations of racism and sectarianism. We need to stand together to say yes to equality and diversity, to building an inclusive society for all and, importantly, to protecting the most vulnerable in our communities. I commend the motion.

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

Assessment

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Assessed 21 October 2026 at 11:32 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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