Perhaps we have become so accustomed to sectarian hatred at this time of year that we tolerate it. Well, we shouldn’t.
KAT’ (Kill All Taigs), the signs declared on multiple Eleventh Night fires: a rallying cry to ethnically cleanse nearly half of the population here.
In no other part of the UK would it be acceptable to call on people to be killed because of their religion.
Imagine the outrage in Britain as crowds gathered for a ‘cultural event’ around a burning pyre covered with ‘KAJ’ (Kill All Jews) or ‘KAM’ (Kill All Muslims).
A collective eye would not be turned to such hate speech in Birmingham or Bradford, so why should they be in Belfast?
How do such genocidal slogans fit what is often presented as a family-friendly occasion?
Does the call to slaughter every Catholic man, woman and child embrace diversity and inclusivity?
‘All Taigs Are Targets’ read the slogan above an image of crosshairs on Cregagh’s fire.
A few inches away, sexism met sectarianism with another sign reading “Michelle O’Neill Fenian Slut.” Election posters of Alliance’s Naomi Long and Peter McReynolds hung above it.
The Highfield bonfire was also decorated with hate speech. Sinn Fein’s Gary McCleave said his children came across the photos on social media and wanted to know “why their father is standing on a bonfire to be burned”.
Election posters of two election candidates in the West Belfast Assembly appeared on the Glencairn bonfire, along with a ‘CAT’ sign.
Bonfire builders clearly don’t like irony. The two elected politicians are the ones whose efforts within the community have been enormous.
Paul Doherty of SDLP runs a food bank and regularly helps people in Glencairn and the greater Shankill area.
He has provided essentials such as cereal, rice, pasta and chicken so that families on both sides of the peace line can feed their children. Gas and electricity receipts and school uniforms have also been delivered to ease the burden during the cost of living crisis.
Paul doesn’t just drop the packages and run away. He will often spend afternoons chatting at the doors of those he helps.
Yesterday he was inundated with messages from people saying they were “shocked and embarrassed” that his posters were on the Glencairn bonfire. “Not in our name,” they told him.
Gerry Carroll of People Before Profit passionately supported the Caterpillar workers in their recent strike, even petitioning to recall the Assembly from discussing it.
The company’s Belfast factory is two miles from the campfire and many of the workers are from the union community, including some from Glencairn.
Carroll referred to the “deafening silence of many union politicians in the face of this kind of sectarian intimidation”.
He’s right: it’s time for leadership. UUP leader Doug Beattie has made his views clear unequivocally, but the same cannot be said of many other senior figures in the union sector.
Of course, such sick sectarian displays are not limited to one community alone. In recent years, the names of murdered prison and police officers have been posted on the August bonfire in the Bogside.
Foolish idiots thought it appropriate to gloat about the deaths of Ronan Kerr, Stephen Carroll, David Black and Adrian Ismay.
In Newry, a bonfire was littered with insulting messages, including one honoring the deaths of 18 soldiers in Narrow Water (“18 Britons shot to shreds”) and another mocking the campaigner for the dead IRA victims, Willie Frazer (“Join your da in hell, Willie”).
Sinn Fein strongly opposes the August bonfires. Those on the ground in Republican areas must work exhaustively to ensure that such displays of sectarian hatred are not repeated next month.
What’s most depressing about the plethora of “CAT” signs on Monday nights is that the younger generation is growing up with this bigotry and poison all around them.
It has been almost a quarter of a century since the Good Friday Agreement. Gathering around a burning pyre and celebrating a call for the extermination of your neighbors does not move with the times.