Riots in Northern Ireland: politicians condemn violence after knife attack in Belfast

Passersby, including one person with a hurling stick, came to the injured man's aid. As the newspaper described, a passerby who happened to be Irish ran to his car, fetched a hurling stick from the boot and beat the attacker until he dropped the knife. He and two helpers overpowered the assailant and handed him over to police. The victim, a man in his forties, was taken to hospital with stab wounds. The victim has lost his left eye and is in intensive care with severe head injuries; his left eye could not be saved.

Background on the suspect

The alleged attacker, a 30-year-old man, was arrested on suspicion of murder. According to police, he is Hadi A., who most recently lived on Duncairn Avenue in north Belfast. According to PSNI investigations, Hadi A. had traveled to Northern Ireland in 2023 via Paris and Dublin and applied for asylum there. The report further states that he applied for asylum in the Republic of Ireland in February 2023 and was granted a residence permit valid until 2028. A few months later, the 30-year-old was granted the right to reside there, initially for five years. On Wednesday, the alleged attacker was brought before a magistrate.

Calls on social media

Shortly after the attack became known, the call circulated on social media: "Wear dark clothing," followed by: "Take to the streets." Throughout Tuesday, anonymous sources spread calls for gatherings across the entire province. There, cameras and phones were said to be unwelcome, and the recommended equipment was black clothing and face coverings. Far-right agitators such as the Englishman Tommy Robinson, as well as the leader of the Restore UK party, Rupert Lowe, promptly called for protests across the country. The protest locations were distributed on X by agitator Tommy Robinson and further amplified by tech billionaire Elon Musk, along with the words: "Only if we protest REPEATEDLY and LOUDLY will anything change!!"

On Tuesday evening, hundreds of rioters filled the streets of Belfast, both in the traditionally Catholic west and in the predominantly Protestant east of the city. Young men and women in balaclavas soon began to rampage. Within minutes, small streets were blocked by burned-out cars. Later, Molotov cocktails were thrown not only at police officers, but also at houses where the perpetrators suspected migrants lived. In the hours that followed, fires were set in 62 locations across Northern Ireland, cars were destroyed, apartments were burned down — predominantly those of people with a migration background.

Political reactions

On Wednesday, police clashed with demonstrators for the second day in a row, deploying water cannons and armored vehicles against several dozen young men who were throwing bricks and fireworks in north Belfast. Hundreds of additional police officers on the streets of Belfast, schools and shops closed: power had to be cut and public transport partially halted. Residents were forced to flee their homes. Police braced for another unsettled night.

Pastor Jack McKee of New Life Church told the BBC that he had had to escort congregants from homes "where they have lived for 20 years." Those displaced, McKee said, "were only displaced because they are Black." The father of the seriously injured victim appealed to fellow citizens and agitators on social media: "Please stop!"

Politicians responded with sharp condemnation. In the House of Commons, Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the events as "shocking and utterly unacceptable"; he also spoke of what he called a "sickening" act of violence. PSNI chief Jon Boutcher reported that his officers had had to evacuate many families. There is no excuse for "this disgraceful behaviour." Northern Ireland Minister Hilary Benn wrote on X: "People are rightly shocked by the brutal attack. But the riots are putting innocent lives at risk." Benn added: "There is absolutely no justification for this kind of thuggery." Northern Ireland's Justice Minister Naomi Long of the Alliance Party accused far-right agitators of inciting violence: "Hate must not win." The leader of the Catholic SDLP and MP Claire Hanna spoke of a "racist pogrom."

Looking at further unrest in the United Kingdom

The unrest in Northern Ireland is not an isolated case. Only last week, right-wing activists took to the streets in Southampton to revolt against what they see as a "two-tier police force" that disadvantages white people. Just seven days after the violent riots in Southampton, parts of Northern Ireland were in flames on Wednesday night. Riots also broke out in the southern English city of Southampton — where the murder of a white student by a Sikh had caused outrage the previous week — as well as in the Scottish cities of Glasgow and Edinburgh, where young people sought confrontation with police.

In the summer, three bloody nights of rioting had already occurred in Ballymena, Northern Ireland. There, too, the trigger was a crime allegedly committed by asylum seekers: an alleged attempted rape of a 14-year-old by two teenagers who had recently arrived from Romania. However, the investigating authorities later appear to have had doubts about the alleged course of events: the proceedings were dropped in November. The report also points to the riots across the country in 2024, after Axel Rudakubana murdered three girls during a dance workshop in Southport. In both cases, interior ministries want to cut the costs of housing migrants and are therefore increasingly turning to cheap housing rather than relying on hotels and guesthouses as before. Such housing is, by its very nature, to be found in already poorer, structurally weak areas such as large parts of northern England, Northern Ireland, or smaller towns in the south of Ireland.