Ar Scáth a Chéile: Responding to a Fascist Pogrom with Solidarity in Action
Belfast has witnessed a fascist pogrom in 2026 and the Northern Ireland state and its police force facilitated that pogrom.
That sentence is worth repeating to let it sink in.
Belfast has witnessed a fascist pogrom in 2026 and the Northern Ireland state and its police force facilitated that pogrom.
When the news began to spread about the brutal knife attack in North Belfast on Monday night and its horrific footage went viral online, there was trepidation that the fascists would latch onto this attack and exploit it by inciting and organising racist violence.
Sensing the impending danger, many of us began posting in chat groups and on social media early on Tuesday morning about the ‘importance of challenging dangerous scaremongering’ and focussing ‘all our sympathy’ with the ‘family of the victim who was attacked’ and stating that ‘the person responsible should be held accountable brought to justice.’ We warned that this ‘had nothing to do with race’ and ‘cannot and should not be used as an excuse to label and attack entire communities.’
What we witnessed was a rapid and seemingly coordinated escalation: right wing and loyalist social media accounts began threatening road closures and protests across the city, screenshots from nameless and faceless chat groups shared details of the houses they would be attacking, UK-based fascist thug Tommy Robinson announced on X to his Elon Musk generated and funded followers that ‘Belfast is burning with rage tonight.’
Some of our politicians increased the tension by fuelling the hyperbole with exaggerated condemnations that racialised a knife attack and gave no public warnings about the stated intentions of the fascist actors.
The public authorities and the PSNI didn’t act decisively to keep the city open and protect the neighbourhoods being threatened. Instead, they closed the city down and abdicated all responsibility by playing a spineless, spectator role as masked thugs rampaged the city with impunity.
Some unionist politicians, including our Education Minister, Paul Givan, were quick to exploit a horrific knife incident as an anti-immigration rallying cry:
“We’ve warned for a long time about uncontrolled immigration...”
For the record, we had 533 knife crimes in 2025/26.
And for the record, this is the same Education Minister who used our taxpayers’ money to visit schools in Israel during a live-streamed genocide against the Palestinian people. Minster Givan was following previous ministerial form. Who could forget his colleague, Communities Minster Gordon Lyons, announcing on X in 2025 that Larne Leisure centre was housing displaced migrant families before his loyalist constituents committed arson against the facility.
As we all know, this current crisis didn’t fall from the sky. It has been building for three years as PPR’s We R.I.S.E Together website has mapped in detail. Moreover, Belfast has been the epicentre of these attacks, accounting for 45% of all recorded race hate incidents (8,847 since 2007), with a rate of 26 per 1,000 people.
As word and footage of burning houses and fleeing families began to filter through, so too did the heroic stories about a cohort of courageous women from Anaka and PPR who broke through the mobs to pull beleaguered and traumatised families from burning houses. They saved families on the Shankill, Tigers Bay and Oakley Street. And the PSNI watched them do it…. Facilitating a pogrom, just like they did back in 1969 when areas in West Belfast like the Lower Falls went up in flames.
While our hearts were broken, our spirits were lifted by the bravery of these women and the powerful support network they have built in recent days that has brought hundreds of families to safety.
Their brave efforts echoed that of republican women who broke through the British Army Curfew in 1970. The silence and inaction from the Council, the Housing Executive, the Department for Communities and the Home Office was as deafening as it was inexcusable.
Glór na Móna decided on Wednesday morning to call a public meeting that afternoon at 4pm to allow our community to convert anger into action. We needed to hear from our women leaders in Anaka about what went on and how we could help. On short notice, we had 150 people packed into Gaelionad Mhic Goill to hear from PPR’s Marissa McMahon and Dessie Donnelly from Rabble Cooperative. We had youth workers, parents, language learners, GAA club reps, local political reps, MLA’s, schoolteachers who had rushed from their classrooms, créche workers, taxi drivers, pensioners, members of the travelling community and everyone in between. Dozens of people spoke and many great practical suggestions were made. Most importantly, we all agreed to follow the lead of the Anaka network and scores of people joined the support team in providing pogrom victims with supports with lifts, childcare, breakfast etc.
Glór na Móna agreed to open our community space as a sanctuary for those with nowhere to stay and to release a statement publicly announcing this in order to encourage others to do likewise. A GAA South Antrim rep agreed to send a letter to all local GAA clubs asking them to follow suit. Thunderclaps were agreed for people to change their profiles pics to ‘Fáilte Roimh Théifigh/Refugees welcome’. Anti-racist posters were proposed and designed for home windows. Rallies were announced. Activists suggested committing to organise to ensure that roads could be opened if the police failed to do so. Speakers also pointed out that all the blame couldn’t be put on Loyalist areas and that we had our own mirrors to look in. The days of letting unbridled racism go unchallenged in our communities is over. This includes the family home, the chat groups, the gym and the workplace. It was agreed that we would call out fascism and announce ourselves avowedly anti-racist and anti-fascist in word and deed.
That night, 15 young Somali men stayed at Glór na Móna and we provided, blankets, duvets, a play station and a nice breakfast courtesy of Bia Loch Lao.
In 1969, the current Glór na Móna site was a makeshift campsite for nationalist refugees who had been burnt out of Bombay Street. An attack that emanated from the same loyalist areas and was facilitated by the same police force. The historic parallels were haunting and disturbing in equal measure. Has there ever been a more striking indictment of our failed new dispensation over the past 30 years? These events should be a shocking wakeup call to us all. This rotten sectarian statelet hasn’t changed its spots or its structures. It has never protected its most vulnerable and never will.
Belfast City Council made a public statement declaring Belfast a ‘safe place-one of the safest in the Uk’. It spoke of ‘disorder’ not the fascist pogrom we all witnessed. Its main concern was the city’s reputation not the residents who were burned from their homes. This mealy-mouthed statement was made in our name and tells us all we need to know.
We marched in our thousands on Saturday and the hairs stood on the backs of our neck as PPR Assistant Director Marissa McMahon called out the state, its police and our failing political institutions. She spoke of how “women showed up for women” and the need to move from “defensive to offensive and get our own house in order”. The power of her speech brought the words of Black Power leader Stokely Carmichael to mind: “these are the leaders that we have been waiting for”.
On Sunday, over 70 families who had been burnt out and intimidated from their homes came to Glór na Móna for a family day where food and refreshments were provided by Bia Loch Lao and Anam, Caifé na Carraige. Some hadn’t seen daylight in 4 days. The Anaka network had kicked into gear with scores of drivers ferrying the families to Ballymurphy from safe spaces across the city.
As Glór na Móna activist Nuala Ní Scolláin stated “the kids got some much-needed fresh air, they had fun playing and got to feel safe for a few hours. We stand shoulder to shoulder with our sisters in Anaka and every other immigrant, refugee and asylum seeker”.
From the embers of the burnt-out homes, a realisation is rapidly dawning that nobody is coming to save us. An inspirational federation of activists, organisations and campaigns are joining the dots and proving that another world is possible. This intersectional movement for social change is emerging from the wreckage and growing in confidence every day.
It’s time to get organised and follow those who know how.
