Debate contribution: Racist Incidents

Debate contribution by Mr Matthew O'Toole on 12 November 2024.

MLA

Mr Matthew O'Toole

Party at the time

Social Democratic and Labour Party

Date

12 November 2024

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Committee Business

Heading

Racist Incidents

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 4658376

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I welcome the fact that we are debating the subject today. I raised it yesterday with the deputy First Minister. I, and, I am sure, others in the Chamber, will keep raising the question of what, practically and specifically, we are doing to tackle the growing scourge of not just race hate but racially aggravated violence in this society. It is important that we back up our words with actions. If we do not, people will ultimately think that this is simply a Potemkin Parliament: a Chamber in which we fill the air with words but in which nothing ever happens. Since we returned in February, we have done a lot of that. It is a cold day outside, but we could warm our hands on some of the words that have been used today. Let us therefore hear about some specifics. In August, we witnessed a violent mob rampage through the streets of Belfast, specifically South Belfast. Several of my constituency colleagues have already spoken today about what happened. I spoke at the anti-racism rally, at which our numbers vastly outweighed those on the side of hate. People brandished the tricolour and the Union Jack to display hate, which should be offensive to people who treasure those flags. The anti-racist numbers vastly outweighed those of the racists. It was not just frustrating but disgusting to see people who had nothing but hate on their mind rampaging through South Belfast, which is my constituency, and, specifically, the university and Holylands area, which is where my constituency office is situated and the most diverse part of the constituency. Some people travelled up on the train from Dublin, while some came from other parts of this island and elsewhere in the North, to display their hate. They are not wanted in Belfast. They were rejected by the diverse community of South Belfast, and, yes, they were rejected here days later. It is also worth saying, as Deirdre Hargey did, that they were rejected by the working-class people of South Belfast. The community in the lower Ormeau stood against them, as, it has to be said, did loyalist parts of the constituency. I will come back to that point, because others are speaking for those people's community. We all came in here a few days later, and we talked about how awful it was, and it was awful, but we are not paid just to talk. We are not a debating society; we are legislators. People are here to govern. What did we expect to see in the aftermath? We expected to see an updated racial equality strategy. We have not got it yet. We expected to see an updated refugee integration strategy. We have not got that yet. We would have liked to see progress and urgency, including from the Justice Minister, on a stand-alone hate crime Bill. It has already been said that we need to beef up hate crime legislation. By the way, that is not some lefty woke theory about having hate crime legislation for its own sake. It is about giving the police the powers to apprehend and tackle not only people who spew race hate online but those who, as happened in my constituency in the past week, chuck masonry through the window of a terraced house, covering a child in glass. That is not about theory. It is about the lives of people in my constituency and this community. It is about kids of colour who are being targeted and families who are being burnt out. Words are great, but they are not enough. Let us come back to words. My constituency colleague Kate Nicholl is right in what she says about the conflation of legitimate concerns. Working-class communities across the city have legitimate concerns about housing, economic opportunity and education. It is our job to come here and deal with those concerns. Conflating those concerns with racial violence is an offence to those working-class communities and the people of colour who face violence and intimidation. Let us stop that. Let us also be honest about the ways in which that racist violence intersects with paramilitarism. There is a lot of double-talk in this place and in society about how those things intersect. The PSNI and the UN acknowledged that loyalist paramilitaries were involved in facilitating that violence. We are told that they have denied it at an organisational level, but it is pretty clear to anyone who is in a position of authority that loyalist paramilitaries were involved in facilitating those actions. Of course, their representatives still get meetings with Ministers. What message are we sending? Let us get real. I welcome the motion, but it has to be followed up with real action, legislation, an updated review and finally being serious about clamping down on all forms of hate. I commend the motion, but let us have some action after the motion and the warm words.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

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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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