Eleventh Night: 'Significant increase' in bonfire callouts

The NI Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) has dealt with a "significant increase in emergency calls and mobilisations to bonfire related incidents".

Bonfires were lit in parts of Northern Ireland on the Eleventh night.

One at Adam Street in Tiger's Bay in north Belfast, which had been subject to legal action, passed off without incident.

NIFRS dealt with 40 bonfire-related call outs between 18:00 BST on Sunday and 02:00 on Monday.

This compared with 24 in the same timeframe last year.

The Adam Street bonfire is located in the unionist Tiger's Bay area, close to an interface with the nationalist New Lodge.

Last week legal action from two Stormont ministers failed in a bid to force police to assist in the removal of the bonfire.

It was lit shortly after midnight.

The fire service had to cool the back of one neighbouring building, but a number of community representatives marshalled people at the fire.

An Irish tricolour was placed on the bonfire just before it was set alight and at one point a laser was shone from a block of flats in New Lodge towards the crowd.

Pastor Brian Madden from Tiger's Bay said those on both sides of the interface had worked to calm tensions, but said the executive had to start work now to make sure the same situation did not arise next year.

"We've worked hard to make sure this has been peaceful and I know people on the other side have worked hard to make sure the New Lodge has been peaceful," he added.

"People don't know the half of the effort that's gone into this - meetings, behind meetings, behind meetings.

"I know people think it's all one-sided, but we've been working really, really hard to get the bonfire moved, to get the tyres out and other stuff removed off it.

"I know they burnt a flag tonight and I don't condone that at all, I didn't want anything burned on it."

DUP leader Sir Jeffrey Donaldson commended the efforts of community workers and fire service staff who ensured bonfires "passed off peacefully".

He said work needed to continue with those organising bonfires to "look at safety issues, the height of bonfires and where they are located".

"Public safety is absolutely paramount when it comes to this," he told BBC NI's Good Morning Ulster.

"If you take the bonfire that has been much talked of in Tiger's Bay, it was significantly reduced in size this year and I think that you can still celebrate your tradition and your culture - you don't have to have the highest bonfire in the world to do that."

Sir Jeffrey said he did not want to see election posters and flags burnt on bonfires.

"I think we can celebrate our culture and tradition in a respectful way," he added.

"Respect is a two-way street, if you want to gain respect for your tradition and culture you have got to show respect for the traditions, cultures, symbols of other communities.

"I have seen the union flag burnt on internment bonfires and I find it offensive and therefore I understand why people are offended when they see a flag or an election poster being burnt on a bonfire at this time of the year.

"The Republic of Ireland are our neighbours and I don't want to see their flag burnt any more than I want to see the union flag burnt and destroyed on other bonfires."

Sinn Féin assembly member for north Belfast, Gerry Kelly, said the Eleventh Night had been "better than we expected, thankfully", and added that there were "a lot of youth workers out and about to try and keep things quiet".

Commenting on the burning of the Irish tricolour on the Adam Street bonfire in Tiger's Bay, he said it was "unacceptable to have the type of hatred which is involved in burning other people's flags".

"I think there's something like 250 bonfires, but there was only a small number which caused all the trouble - but they caused severe trouble and that's the difficulty," he added.

"It's being described as culture, and I accept that it's culture, but if part of that culture is brought to interfaces... then there needs to be strong work done."

The fire and rescue service said it was was "exceptionally busy on each of the three nights of Friday, Saturday and Sunday, with "direct intervention required to protect properties from radiated heat and embers from the bonfires".

Paddy Gallagher, Assistant Chief Fire Officer with the NIFRS, said that of the 244 incidents they attended from Friday to Sunday, 81 were bonfire-related.

He said there were no attacks on fire service personnel or appliances at any bonfires.

Eleventh Night bonfires take place annually ahead of the Twelfth of July.

Traditionally, tens of thousands of people attend parades on 12 July, which is held every year to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.

Following the failed court bid by ministers from Sinn Féin and the SDLP to remove the bonfire at Adam Street, former DUP leader Arlene Foster has said republican attitudes towards loyalist bonfires show it is "nonsense" to claim that all cultures would be welcome in a united Ireland.

Arlene Foster made her remarks in the Sunday Telegraph newspaper.

Mrs Foster claimed Sinn Féin had shown they "aren't interested in learning about other people's culture".

"Of course not all in Northern Ireland celebrate the Twelfth," Mrs Foster wrote.

"Irish Republican activists, view the Twelfth as another opportunity not to understand their neighbours but instead to demonise them; this year the subject of demonisation is bonfires."

Earlier in the day, Northern Ireland's Deputy First Minister Michelle O'Neill, of Sinn Féin, defended the failed legal bid, saying ministers had "a duty to uphold the law".