An outsider’s view of eleventh night bonfires from VICE News. Jake Hanrahan based himself at the Lanark Way bonfire, interviewing those building the dizzyingly high tower of pallets as well as those who came along to the structure burn.
Near the end of the ten minute video report [8:50] one lad seems to surprise the reporter when he describes the Ardoyne as “half and half, it’s partly their road and it’s partly our road” and goes on to talk about the trouble that has followed previous Twelfth of July marches in the area.
Would you want to spend time in jail for throwing a couple of bricks?
Perhaps that was what ultimately helped those negotiating for a quieter Twelfth this year. Local lads were unwilling to risk jail and the burden of a criminal record in return for a few moments of expressing their own and their community frustrations.
Alan Meban. Tweets as @alaninbelfast. Blogs about cinema and theatre over at Alan in Belfast. A freelancer who writes about, reports from, live-tweets and live-streams civic, academic and political events and conferences. He delivers social media training/coaching; produces podcasts and radio programmes; is a FactCheckNI director; a member of Ofcom’s Advisory Committee for Northern Ireland; and a member of the Corrymeela Community.
