Riots in Ballymena following anti-immigration protest…

Riots broke out in Ballymena last night following allegations of a serious sexual assault on a local teenage girl over the weekend. Two 14-year-old Romanian boys have since appeared in court in connection with the incident. That the police has arrested and charged the alleged perpetrators does not seem to be enough for the locals.

The fallout has been swift and violent. At least four homes were set alight and completely destroyed, with the flames spreading to adjacent properties. In a separate incident later that evening, a car was torched in Cullybackey, likely not a coincidence. It doesn’t take a forensic profiler to suspect those homes may have housed members of the Roma community.

Let’s not beat around the bush: this looks like good old-fashioned scapegoating. The kind that erupts when anger meets prejudice. People won’t talk about the hundred crimes committed by locals; they’ll zero in on the one committed by someone without a North Antrim accent.

Ballymena, according to the most recent census, remains over 96% white. As for other ethnic groups, well, the number of Arabs in town wouldn’t fill a Honda Jazz, never mind a mosque. The Roma number, however, stands out, with more than every other ethnic group combined.

Why? A look back offers a clue. In 1998, there was a similar flare-up, and local reporting pointed to the influx of Roma workers recruited for food processing jobs in the area.

So yes, while it’s tempting to write this off as another outburst from the far right, there’s usually more bubbling underneath. Tensions like this don’t just come from nowhere, they’re often rooted in deeper issues around housing allocation, job competition, and a general sense of being left behind.

That doesn’t excuse the violence, but it is useful to know the full picture, even if it is grievances being exploited by right-wing elements. At the moment, social media is full of posts from a weird alignment of Loyalists and the Irish far right. Weird bedfellows indeed.

Brian O'Neill

Managing Editor of Slugger O’Toole. I help to manage Slugger by taking care of the site as well as running our live events. My background is in business, marketing and IT. My politics tend towards middle-of-the-road pragmatism; I am not a member of any political party. When not stuck in front of a screen, I am a parkrun Run Director.