Belfast mural arson is latest bigoted vandalism incident: DUP

Two murals in a loyalist district of Belfast have suffered scorch damage in an attack the DUP has said is the latest bigoted vandalism incident in the north-west Belfast area within days.
By The Newsroom
Published 13th Jun 2018, 15:28 BST
Updated 19th Jun 2018, 16:44 BST
A mural on Beverley Street / Northumberland Street in the greater Shankill area, bearing scorch damageA mural on Beverley Street / Northumberland Street in the greater Shankill area, bearing scorch damage
A mural on Beverley Street / Northumberland Street in the greater Shankill area, bearing scorch damage

One mural pays tribute to Battle of Britain airmen, including Polish servicemen who fought as part of the Allied forces, and another deals with Jewish units of the British Army during World War One and bears an image of the Israeli flag.

A poster went up in the area after the attacks, saying “this is what a so called united Ireland would look like”.

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The police confirmed they had received a report of damage to the murals in the Beverley Street/Northumberland Street area, adding it is thought the damage which is being treated as a hate crime – was caused overnight between Tuesday and Wednesday.

The area is close to a security gate dividing loyalist greater Shankill from the Falls Road.

Brian Kingston, DUP north Belfast councillor and former lord mayor of the city, said the former mural had been attacked two years earlier.

He said it comes after a “poppy cross tribute” at Glenbank, off the Crumlin Road, was vandalised, adding those responsible “must not be allowed to set the agenda with their sectarian and indeed racist and anti-Semitic acts of vandalism”.

Related topics:Belfast