IN 1972, the farmers who are paramilitary files are fired in the house of a Catholic woman, sarah mcclenaghan. That night he was at home with his lodger, a Protestant, and his teenage son David. Then pressed his son to get the rosaries his mother’s beads, confirming that he was a catholic, a loyalist paramilitary raped Sarah. David was tortured. The gang shot them, David died in his wounds.
I think about David and Sarah as I watch the news of Pogrom in Ballymena. I think about lies that violence against women and women are imported into Northern Ireland through migrants or asylum seeking. It’s always here.
The rioters say they act to drive away foreigners who have led women and women. Irony does not lose anyone with the local area. Modern-day loyalty paramilitaries are reported involved in violence. In Belfast Telegraph this week, the journalist Allison Morris reported that members of South East Antrim Ullter Depense Association is one of the rioters. “The organization,” he wrote, “Always named after our brother, life on Sunday, as preserves sex offenders.” Morris regularly faced death threats for his valiant reporting.
Ballymena riots are about racism and no more. Hate is setting each brick and petroleum pump thrown. Nothing causes women or children. There are no legitimate concerns of its heart. Local Facebook groups with long-distance links ask for addresses to hit – people in Rome are the main target of their IRE. The flyers post around towns and cities calling for people to stand to protect “our women” and “our Christian values”.
The trigger for violence in Ballymena is trauma and pain in a local family. Earlier in the week, two 14-year-old boys arrested and charged with trying to rape a girl. Romanian translators are required in court.
After the arrest, the victim’s families were asked for support and unity from their local community. Hundreds do this, peaceful protesting to show the family without being alone. Then the cruelty came. The President Constable to Serve Police in Northern Ireland (PSNI) said the victim of the alleged attack “additional trauma” of chaos. The public called his family to control violence.
Women have not been safe in Northern Ireland. Generations carry severity of disturbances, running homes and raises children with no husbands. Hundreds were killed in conflict. During the peace discussion that carried the Good Friday Agreement, the Women’s Women’sa political party, defined 30-year conflict as an “armed patriarchy”.
Northern Ireland is not a place where women and girls have been charged. PSNI recorded 4,090 Sexual Offenses in Northern Ireland By 2023-24. Twenty-five women were killed In five years, most white men from Northern Ireland.
I know one of them: Natalie mcnally. We used to be spouses. He lasted I was contacted asking about the home shopping process (I used to be a conveynitorcing solicitor). Natalie bought his first home and the process dragged on. He was killed in the same house on December 2022, his 15-week son of his stomach. I hold my own four-week son when I know he’s dead. The test Due to the occurrence of NovemberWith the defendants indicating that he pleads not guilty.
Well, some say, if there are many homesgrown criminals, we don’t need more. It is, again, another racist argument, a trope of the age of non-white men sexual people. The problem is men, perfect stops. In every country of the world, every community and every faith, people hate women. Misogyny did not respect the boundaries. The fascists want to talk about foreign men who interfere from their own disgusting behavior.
Immigration concerns appeared very well in the news. Due to troubles, Northern Ireland always has low level of migration. Have changed in recent years. Net Migration reached the highest level of 15 years In 2024. There was no doubt it changed some places and proved to be away from local people and migrants. However, according to a report in Northern Ireland reported in northern Ireland is still the least different regions in the UK. Only 3.4% of people from a minority ethnic group, compared to 18.3% in England.
Before migrant numbers rise, public services to northern Ireland kneel. The health service has all crumpled. The housing system is subjected to many strain, we do not have enough residence to meet the demands and rents who have risen in an unrealized level.
People moved to this mess. It will be repeated to deny that higher numbers are placed the pressure of the system. But it’s a flat lie blaming migrants and refugees for country diseases. Migrants do not decide NHS. The refugees do not underfund social residence and homeless. Local and national Politicians do that. They did very little to fix systems crushed under their watch. It’s easy to blame people who work as drivers to save.
Northern Ireland should be extended to its excitement for racism and Xenophobia. Fixing crime to hate suffering is at the highest level because records start. It affects every community, Catholic and Protestant. You can’t “legitimate anxiety” in your way through a pogrom and doing so just proves hate.
If women in northern Ireland are disturbed every time one of us is attacked, the country will lie down in ashes.
Sarah Cameron is a lawyer, writer and political commentator from Northern Ireland
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