Debate contribution: Bonfire Regulation

Debate contribution by Mr Gerry Carroll on 16 September 2025.

MLA

Mr Gerry Carroll

Party at the time

People Before Profit Alliance

Date

16 September 2025

Type

Debate contribution

Business

Private Members' Business

Heading

Bonfire Regulation

Assembly identifier

Official Report component 5111665

Read the official Assembly record

Text

I have just started. Maybe if you wait a second. Illegal and unregulated bonfires are annual reminders that the threat of loyalist violence and intimidation is still, unfortunately, with us. Every summer, like clockwork, sectarian tensions are heightened. For all the talk about peace and reconciliation, loyalist paramilitaries clearly hold a tight grip on communities. I blame the paramilitaries and not the ordinary working-class Protestant people for the scourge of dangerous and threatening bonfires. The summer saga at the Donegall Road bonfire was a clear example of the absurdity of politics in the North. That bonfire is at an interface site, smack bang in the middle of neighbourhoods blighted by poverty, alienation and decades of sectarian division: something that I talk about all the time. We witnessed a toxic mix of asbestos, a health and safety nightmare, fused with sectarianism. I live a stone's throw away from that bonfire. None of the Members to my right lives near it, and I was concerned, then as I am now, about the impact that that bonfire being burnt at a site covered with asbestos will have on my family and my neighbours, and on my neighbours in a different constituency across the way.

Sure, I will give way.

I have been raising concerns about asbestos in that general area for quite some time. If he checks the 'The Irish News', he will see that I spoke about asbestos at the Broadway Tower site earlier this year, before July. You cannot pick and choose. That was a terrible attempt at deflection but, anyway, I proceed. That bonfire should not have been lit, but the obvious question is why was it allowed to be erected in the first place? I imagine that unionists like Mr Gaston and others would be aghast if attempts were made to prevent it from even being built. The NIEA has launched a criminal investigation into the presence of asbestos on that site, and I sincerely hope that all the asbestos has been removed, and the Executive should confirm whether that is the case. I am happy to give way to anybody on that issue. I fear, however, that the damage has already been done and, as we have heard, sustained exposure to asbestos particles in the air damages lungs and causes cancer. That is well documented. I fear that more working-class people will be consigned to that fate, and because it is the health of working-class people, it is seen to be OK, justified and justifiable, which is sickening. I have written to the First Minister and the deputy First Minister demanding that a task force be set up to assess the health impacts of that toxic bonfire. It is not just about what happened in July but about what happens after July. Before the next attempt to erect a bonfire, there needs to be some kind of investigation into the health impacts on working-class people, not just from the Iveagh and St James's areas but from the Village, Sandy Row and elsewhere, who are affected by the fumes and the presence of a bonfire on an asbestos site. Bonkers indeed. It should also involve engagement with clinicians, who are the best-placed people to understand and treat any long-term health impacts on working-class communities who already suffer from, as I say, unacceptable health inequalities. It would be foolish not to mention the role played by politicians in the community and Stormont in courting, funding and protecting loyalist paramilitaries, in particular, for many decades. Those figures should have been shunned; instead, the red carpet and funding were rolled out to them. Over the summer, we also witnessed the disgraceful and despicable burning of effigies of migrants and asylum seekers. That is not legitimate political or cultural expression; it is disgusting hatred that needs to be condemned. Yet, year after year, political leaders give the green light to hatred and division of that kind. The deprivation ushered in by both Westminster and Stormont has created the conditions for racism and sectarianism to thrive. Normal politics at Stormont, Westminster and the Dáil has failed people right across the island. We should all be angry about poverty, the housing crisis, violence against women and many other issues that are faced by deprived communities. Unfortunately, far right agitators and paramilitaries want to control the narrative around the problems that are faced by our communities. They weaponise genuine feelings of despair and frustration for their own gain to scapegoat migrants and marginalised people for their own failings. Unique —.

Go ahead.

I remind the Member that my constituency takes in a large part of the Shankill Road. I let the Member know that my party, alongside trade unions, organised a significant march in 2019 of trade unionists and workers from the Shankill Leisure Centre, up through Lanark Way and down the Falls Road, against the privatisation of leisure. I invite the Member to give me one example of his party uniting working-class people of any stripe for any occasion across east Belfast, west Belfast or south Belfast. He is unable to.

On that point, I will emphasis that unity and the working-class struggle is the key to overcoming the division that the Member is happy to stoke.

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

Assessment

Not flagged

Second assessment

Jev’s answers did not settle this record, so a second model, claude-opus-5-5, read the same text (without the MLA’s name or party) and gave its reasons on 21 October 2026. How the second assessment works

Verdict

Not flagged

Public interest or divisiveness

Mainly advances the public interest

Against the published rubric

The contribution treats bonfires mainly as a health, safety and paramilitary-intimidation issue. It focuses on asbestos at an interface site, asks the Executive to confirm it has been removed, and calls for a task force with clinicians to assess health impacts on residents of both communities. It explicitly blames "the paramilitaries and not the ordinary working-class Protestant people" and condemns the burning of effigies of migrants as "disgusting hatred", which the rubric treats as genuine questions rather than symbolic ones. There are partisan barbs, such as suggesting unionists would be "aghast" at preventing the bonfire and accusing an opponent of being "happy to stoke" division, but these are secondary to the substance.

Public interest or divisiveness

The main thrust is the practical harm to working-class neighbourhoods on all sides from a toxic bonfire, together with opposition to racist and sectarian intimidation. That serves the public interest. The sharp exchanges with unionist members and the claims that politicians courted and funded paramilitaries add some partisan edge. They are aimed at political conduct rather than at a community as a whole.

Jev’s structured answers

Assessed 21 October 2026 at 13:15 UTC by jev-1.13.0 (requested as typesafe/jev) under rubric 2026.10-r9, methodology 1.9.

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