Pyres and Prejudice…

Karl Marx and Winston Churchill would have had very little in common overall but both seem to have shared similar views on the cyclical nature of history. Whereas Marx famously said ‘History repeats itself, first as tragedy, then as farce’ in “The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte” it was Winston Churchill who added the necessary contextualization in a speech in 1948 where he said (evoking the words of George Santayana) “Those that fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it” thus reminding us that the reason history repeats itself at all is due to Human stupidity.

Whereas Marx was addressing the tumultuous events in France that had followed the French Revolution, and Churchill was addressing the House of Commons in his role as British Prime Minister, I find myself recalling their words in relation to a bonfire.

To repeat, this post is about a bonfire. It is a testament to how utterly unmoored from reality this place is that the main news story is about a bonfire. But it’s not just about a bonfire, is it? It’s about what the bonfire represents.

Now, time for the standard disclaimer. I recognise that that the vast majority of bonfires that will be lit tonight will be done in a safe, family-friendly, unprovocative fashion and I earnestly hope that everyone attending has a good time. I have to insert this standard disclaimer, because if it or something akin to it were missing it may lead some to conclude that what I am about to write stems from some deep hatred of Loyalist culture, when that is not the case.  Some may conclude that anyway, but that is something I cannot help.

You see, we roll the dice every year when the marching season rolls around and the white nights of summer arrive. What is going to be this year’s outrage? There’s always at least one.

There are the multiple bonfires on which Irish tricolours and posters of Nationalist politicians that are burned, but that’s a low-level background hum now. I’m talking about the REALLY outrageous stuff, the stories that dominate the news cycle in the run up to the Eleventh night and which many have long argued destroy any chance of the night being viewed positively by those who don’t celebrate it.

In 2021 when there was a possibility that a bonfire built at an interface could be removed by the Department of Infrastructure, the builders of the bonfire threatened serious disorder unless they were allowed to proceed unmolested and they ended up getting their way.

In 2022, there was condemnation of the Glenfield bonfire for hanging effigies of Michelle O’Neill, Naomi Long and Mary Lou McDonald. I am sure those who vigorously took to the streets of Ballymena a few weeks ago in defense of women would have been absolutely shocked by such a naked display of misogyny and sectarianism.

In 2024 the Moygashel bonfire courted controversy by including a model of a Police Car atop the pyre.

And in 2025, attempting to outdo themselves, the Moygashel bonfire builders have this year installed an effigy of a migrant boat complete with an Irish tricolour of course because they don’t want anyone they hate to feel left out. Whilst Jamie Bryson lauds this, saying “Every year Moygashel bonfire combines artistic protest with their cultural celebration. Their yearly art has itself become a tradition. This year the focus is on the scandal of mass illegal immigration” the head of the Church of Ireland and Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell was just a tad more critical. The ‘Belfast Telegraph’ says the Archbishop referred to the Bible as he

“quoted from the book of Leviticus (19:34) which states “the stranger who resides with you shall be to you as one of your citizens; you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt” which he described as “the words from the Law of God to his people”.

“If we compare them with the effigy of a boat of migrants which sits, to our humiliation and lasting shame, on top of a bonfire in Moygashel, it exposes that effigy for what it is – racist, threatening and offensive,” the clergyman added.

“It certainly has nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity or with Protestant culture and is in fact inhuman and deeply sub-Christian.”

The worst thing?

The Moygashel bonfire isn’t even the most controversial one this year. That’s the bonfire that has risen in the Village area of South Belfast, not coincidentally close to the interface with the Falls.

Now the bonfire in question could not be more illegal than it is.

• The pallets used in its construction are stolen goods.
• The land the bonfire is being built on is private property, so it is being trespassed on.
• The bonfire itself is in proximity to a substantial amount of asbestos, which if it ignites creates an exceptionally dangerous health hazard.
• The bonfire has also been built in proximity to an electrical substation which is part of the network supplying both the City and the Royal Victoria Hospitals.

In every respect, this bonfire is a clear threat to the health and safety of the people of Belfast, not only to those who are going to be in the immediate vicinity of the thing when it is lit, but to the entire population of the city who may find themselves with hospitals potentially being put out of commission. It is no good that there are apparently mitigations being put place to reduce the chances of any disruption, the bald fact remains that it is palpably crazy we as a society are trying to reduce the chances of these negative outcomes rather than taking the obvious step that anyone anywhere else in the world would take and dismantle the bonfire before it can do harm.

So when I heard that Belfast City Council had, at the last minute, voted to remove the Bonfire and had asked the PSNI to facilitate it did I think ‘Thank Goodness, sense has prevailed’?

Of course not. It was patently obvious that the Bonfire builders would resort to their tried and trusty playbook when one of these controversial bonfires is threatened. Promise mayhem if they don’t get their way. And they got their way. The bonfire stays, it will be lit tonight, and the crowd can bask in the atmosphere (hopefully one not laced with asbestos though, and if it is hopefully the local hospitals still have power to treat them) of having successfully thumbed their nose at the elected council and the forces of law and order.

After all, what contributes more to a sense of security in the public than the knowledge that if someone simply threatens enough violence the police force will meekly slink away and let that someone do whatever the hell they want?

Loyalism, suffice to say, has form on this.

You can go all the way back to the various Home Rule crises where Unionist politicians muttered darkly about the consequences if a form of devolution desired by the majority of people on the island were imposed on them without their express consent.

Or the Ulster Workers Council Strike where Loyalist paramilitaries helped ensure the success of the strikes through the use of intimidation.

Or the parade disputes of the 1990s and 2000s, which are the closest parallel to the current impasse over bonfires (as Arnold Carlton highlighted in his recent article) where the then RUC forced several Orange Order parades through nationalist areas, in spite of the opposition of the residents, because the Chief Constable at the time judged that the threat to law and order from the Loyalist rioting he was assured would follow a ban would be too great to handle, (though the nationalist rioting that he was also assured would follow, and did, didn’t seem to be weighed as heavily in his considerations).

Time and again when Loyalist paramilitaries threaten violence in defense of the indefensible, the state caves in and gives them what they want. The result of this has been that Loyalist paramilitaries simply threaten violence at the merest hint that one of the controversial bonfires could be properly dealt with. Even one where the complaints aren’t because it is bedecked with effigies, or insulting slogans, or posters of politicians, but because the damn thing is a threat to life, health and infrastructure. And Unionist politicians have been complicit in this, with DUP Councillor Sarah Bunting bemoaning the decision of the Council to remove the bonfire as leaving ‘a lot of disappointed children on this site’ who can now look forward to the memorable experience of lighting a massive pyre next to a gigantic pile of dangerous chemicals.

Three years ago, Slugger posted an article from Dr. Amanda Hall wherein she reminded us what the purpose of those controversial bonfires is. I quote from her article here

“This is because, ultimately, it isn’t about Eleventh Night.

Builders of the most controversial of 2021’s bonfires, built near the peace line between Tigers Bay and New Lodge in Belfast, framed it clearly, saying:

“This is no longer about a bonfire; it goes to the core of the one-sided peace process over the past 23 years. Unionism must give, and nationalism must get. We have nothing left to give and we as a community will peacefully and lawfully defend the right of the bonfire builders to celebrate our culture.”

These provocative bonfires are provocative because that is the point. There’s a reason they tend to be built as close to interfaces with nationalist areas as possible. There’s a reason why they were bedecked with effigies and posters and slogans. They have grown in size in the past few decades and I cannot help but feel that is no coincidence, the controversial bonfires are the replacement and spiritual successor to parades that went through nationalist areas but which are now all restricted in doing so, either banned completely or fettered in some way.

They’re a challenge to the rest of society, an assertion of dominance, and a dare. You let them go ahead, you’ve confirmed their power. You try and stop them, well then they’ll wreck the place.

Tonight, the builders of the Village bonfire are doubtless overjoyed. They got their way once again.

And the builders of the Moygashel bonfire are surely pleased at the attention they’ve gotten for their disgusting display. I wonder what they’ll ‘delight’ us with next year?

The question for the rest of us is whether this really the kind of society we wish to live in? This will just repeat again in 2026 when some new outrage dominates the headlines.

History repeats itself as tragedy because we don’t learn from it.

History repeats itself as farce when we do learn from it, but then do the same thing anyway.