{"id":7245,"date":"2026-06-13T16:35:26","date_gmt":"2026-06-13T16:35:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/13\/thousands-attend-anti-racism-rallies-following-unrest-in-belfast\/"},"modified":"2026-06-13T16:35:26","modified_gmt":"2026-06-13T16:35:26","slug":"thousands-attend-anti-racism-rallies-following-unrest-in-belfast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/13\/thousands-attend-anti-racism-rallies-following-unrest-in-belfast\/","title":{"rendered":"Thousands attend anti-racism rallies following unrest in Belfast"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<p><em>The rallies in Northern Ireland come after two nights of anti-immigrant violence sparked by a stabbing incident.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<div aria-live=\"polite\" aria-atomic=\"true\">\n<p>Thousands of people in Northern Ireland have rallied against <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/10\/protesters-torch-cars-buildings-in-belfast-after-knife-attack\">anti-immigrant violence<\/a> provoked by a stabbing in the capital Belfast.<\/p>\n<p>Protesters on Saturday gathered outside Belfast City Hall with placards sporting slogans such as \u201cHate is the only threat to our streets\u201d and \u201cBelfast stands against racism\u201d. An anti-racism rally was also held at Londonderry \u2013 widely known as Derry \u2013 city hall, reported the Belfast Telegraph.<\/p>\n<section>\n<h2>Recommended Stories <\/h2>\n<p><span>list of 3 items<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span>list 1 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/11\/police-in-belfast-use-water-cannon-as-anti-immigrant-unrest-continues\">Police in Belfast use water cannon as anti-immigrant unrest continues<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 2 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/gallery\/2026\/6\/10\/anti-immigration-protests-break-out-in-belfast-after-knife-attack\">Photos: Anti-immigration protests break out in Belfast after knife attack<\/a><\/li>\n<li><span>list 3 of 3<\/span><a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/10\/why-has-belfast-erupted-in-anti-immigrant-violence-after-a-knife-attack\">Why has Belfast erupted in anti-immigrant violence after a knife attack?<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span>end of list<\/span><\/section>\n<p>Belfast saw two nights of public disorder and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/12\/riots-violence-hate-anti-immigrant-unrest-spells-danger-in-belfast\">racist violence<\/a> after video of Monday night\u2019s knife attack \u2013 which showed a man straddling another lying in the street, slashing him with a knife \u2013 went viral across social media platforms.<\/p>\n<p>Sudanese national Hadi Alodid <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/amp\/news\/2026\/6\/11\/police-in-belfast-use-water-cannon-as-anti-immigrant-unrest-continues\">appeared in court<\/a> on Wednesday charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie, who remains in hospital.<\/p>\n<p>On Saturday, protester Hilary Hunter, 63, told the AFP news agency she was there because she was \u201cjust disgusted at what\u2019s going on, our beautiful country\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEverybody\u2019s here just to show that those people [anti-immigrant rioters] \u2026 causing all the problems aren\u2019t speaking for us,\u201d she said at the rally organised by the Unite Against Racism group.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4654882\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4654882\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/afp_6a2d70bc767c-1781362876.jpg?w=770&#038;resize=770%2C513&#038;quality=80\" alt=\"People turn out for a demonstration against racism and call for calm in central Belfast, Northern Ireland on June 13, 2026, after a few nights of disorder hit the city when video of a knife attack on June 8 went viral across social media platforms.\" fetchpriority=\"low\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4654882\">Calling out racism at a rally in Belfast, Northern Ireland, June 13, 2026 [AFP]<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Protesters held the \u201cbiggest\u201d anti-racism rally ever seen in Belfast to impart a very simple and clear message, Patrick Corrigan, Northern Ireland director of Amnesty International UK, told Al Jazeera.<\/p>\n<p>The message is that \u201cdespite the horrible scenes of racist violence we have seen in some parts of Belfast this week, the vast majority of people in Belfast are anti-racist, they are very welcoming to migrants and minorities who have come from other parts of the world [and] we want them to stay\u201d, said Corrigan.<\/p>\n<p>The authorities were not sufficiently prepared to deal with the past several days of violence, he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis is the third consecutive summer of racist violence we have seen. We have been warning the Northern Ireland authorities that more was to come and they were not ready.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>To prevent future incidents, \u201cwe need clear political leadership from the top down \u2026 from UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer down to Northern Ireland\u2019s own political leaders,\u201d said Corrigan, adding: \u201cAll that we\u2019ve seen from Starmer this week are words of condemnation \u2013 that\u2019s wholly inadequate to the task\u201d.<\/p>\n<h2 id=\"targeted-because-of-the-colour-of-their-skin\">Targeted because of the \u2018colour of their skin\u2019<\/h2>\n<p>Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said on Thursday that the rioting had <a href=\"http:\/\/www.aljazeera.com\/news\/2026\/6\/11\/minister-condemns-racist-thuggery-as-violence-returns-to-northern-ireland\">created a sense of fear<\/a> with some being \u201cintimidated\u201d and \u201cburned out of their houses by masked thugs on the basis of the colour of their skin\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said there had been reports of people being stopped in their cars to be asked their nationality on their way to work, describing it as \u201ccompletely unacceptable\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>Local councillor Seamas de Faoite of the SDLP nationalist party, said people had turned out to show that they were \u201cappalled\u201d at the \u201cracist violence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>He said organisations across the city had been working tirelessly to rehouse people who were now \u201ctoo frightened\u201d to return to their homes.<\/p>\n<p>Immigration is a hot-button issue in both the UK and Ireland, and has helped fuel the rise of the right-wing Reform UK party, led by Nigel Farage.<\/p>\n<p>Both countries have seen frequent anti-immigration protests in recent years, some turning violent.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The rallies in Northern Ireland come after two nights of anti-immigrant violence sparked by a stabbing incident. Thousands of people in Northern Ireland have rallied against anti-immigrant violence provoked by a stabbing in the capital Belfast. Protesters on Saturday gathered outside Belfast City Hall with placards sporting slogans such as \u201cHate is the only threat &#8230; <a title=\"Thousands attend anti-racism rallies following unrest in Belfast\" class=\"read-more\" href=\"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/2026\/06\/13\/thousands-attend-anti-racism-rallies-following-unrest-in-belfast\/\" aria-label=\"Read more about Thousands attend anti-racism rallies following unrest in Belfast\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7246,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-7245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-travel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pronews.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}