Anti-immigration sentiment has seemingly united people with longstanding sectarian divisions in Northern Ireland, with a protest against mass migration seeing British Union Jack flags and the Irish Tricolour flying side by side.
In the city centre of Belfast, the capital city of the UK’s Northern Ireland and the previous epicentre of decades-long violent conflict known as ‘The Troubles’, anti-immigration activists from both sides of the “united” Ireland debate put aside their differences to unite around the cause of ending mass migration to the Emerald Isle.
At the scene of the protest, GB News’ Northern Ireland reporter, Dougie Beattie, said with astonishment: “For the first time in my life, I have seen a Union Jack flying alongside a Tricolor.”
Beattie noted that the anti-mass migration protest, organised in the wake of a mass stabbing attack on a children’s dance party in Southport, England on Monday, was mostly comprised of working class people, including some from Dublin.
In stark contrast, he said that a pro-migration counterprotest was mostly comprised of middle and upper-class people, whom he noted have not felt the same brunt of mass migration policies. Rather than flying the Union Jack and the Tricolour, the pro-migration protest mostly featured Palestinian, Antifa, and Pride flags.
Beattie said that the pro-migration crowd chanted “Nazi scum off our streets” towards the working-class anti-mass migration protesters, who in turn, reportedly chanted: “Islam out!”
The Police Service of Northern Ireland, which deployed riot vehicles and officers, said that it was “aware of several planned protests across Northern Ireland today and will be in attendance to ensure the safety of everyone involved”.
Police at one point formed a cordon around the Islamic Centre on University Street as the anti-mass migration protest went past.
Several businesses in Belfast reportedly saw their storefronts attacked, resulting in at least two arrests, the Belfast Telegraph reports.