Absolutely massive bonfire burned in Corcrain, Portadown a couple nights ago

This was about the height of a 14 story building. Each tier of pallets was more than twice the height of a man... I'd say maybe 16 feet high, and there were seven tiers.



The effigy being paraded around and hoisted to the top of the fire is that of Col. Robert Lundy, a Scottish army officer, and the governor of Derry who attempted to surrender the city to the Jacobite forces during its siege in 1689. He is regarded as the archetypal traitor figure in Ulster loyalism and ritually burned on bonfies each year.

The flag on top is the Irish tricolour, of course. This is actually one of the clearner bonfires this year, in terms of flag and symbol burning, with only the single tricolour at the top. Many others have multiple tricolours, GAA team flags, GAA team jerseys, starry plough flags, Sinn Fein or republican memorials, wall decorations etc. that may have been stolen from various places (hunger striker memorials are common). Basically any kind of Irish republican / nationalist symbology or associated thing they can get their hands on. Last year many of the bonfires were covered in election posters of Sinn Fein MLAs, but since there was no recent election this year and thus a shortage of such posters, they were not much in evidence this time around.

There's been a bit of trouble and rioting in Belfast over issues to do with some of the bonfires there. A court order was obtained, ordering several of them to be removed, moved, or reduced in size. In the case of one of the massive ones, the judge ordered it reduced to 3 metres in height (it was closer to 15) and 100 riot police turned up to enforce this on the 9th, whereupon the men building /guarding the fire set fire to it there and then, rather than have it dismantled. Elsewhere, including at Cluan Place which has an infamous history of trouble they showed up in force and protected masked contractors brought in to dismantle a fire, trouble spawned from that and some cars were burned and a pipe bomb went off.

The weather plays a part too to be honest. We've had a slew of wet and damp marching seasons for the past few years, but this year has been hot and dry, with a heatwave driving the temperature up to about 30°c / 86°f which is rare for Northen Ireland. That kind of weather always tend to cause an... interesting summer, with long warm nights and people out on the streets who could get up to stuff. It doesn't help that many of those who hang around bonfires, marches etc. are often full of alcohol at the time.

How utterly non-provocative this is. Surely an excellent way to celebrate ones culture and utterly refute allegations that it is synonymous with bigotry and supremacism.

Oh look, a Midnight Funeral post.
How do you like them otters?

This seems dangerous - stacked pallets of burning wood could fall on people.

A bit dangerous when the burning tower falls over.

I made a list.

I don't think there has ever been much pretense otherwise. "Sticking it to them-uns" has always been an integral part of the celebration. I mean, it is a celebration of a military victory over the side the nationalists of today would hark back to. Or so it is perceived anyway.

That bonfire burned on the 10th, a day earlier than most of them. The next night, three other bonfires in Portadown burned, including this one at Killicomaine, which was more lavishly adorned with Irish / nationalist paraphenalia:



At about 1:12 on the left you can see a sunburst flag. On the other side of the pyre at 1:21 you can see a Four Provinces flag.

This collection of stuff:



Consists of two things. One is a flag that has been produced and distributed to various bonfires across Northern Ireland this year in response to the Mid Ulster Council (mostly centered in county Tyrone and nationalist-dominated) attempting to introduce controls on bonfires, such as a licencing scheme, requirements for barriers around them, and a ban on flag and effigy burning. The shield is the coat of arms of the council, overlaid by a swastika, I guess to make the point that MUC are behaving like a bunch of nazis.

Under that are a couple of posters for Tír Na nÓg, a GAA club in Portadown.

I didn't know you could make things out of pallettes!

I've played football in that club many times. That you would want to burn their stuff (presumably stolen from them) is despicable.

Given the outright hatred of the whole thing, the association with symbols of Nazism is unsurprising and is of a piece with other far right affiliations.

Are most of the people in NI garbage or just the ones you like to talk to us about?

That's quite the supposition there on your part. I have no problem at all with the GAA and have no ill will towards them. I'm only posting informationally here about stuff that goes on in my local area. I'm not involved with building the bonfires either, though I do usually walk up and have a look at the thing when it's burned, but then lots of people from the estate do that. It's an interesting local community event is all.

I am not a hateful person RickDeckard, nor do I have hate in my heart for Catholics or supporters of Irish republicanism. I don't expect you to believe me when I say that, but it is the truth.

That's running off an ongoing backstory with the MUC being cast as fascists / nazis / oppressors. To wit: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-44414397

It's coming off of rhetoric such as:

...so there's talk of fascism, nazism etc. running around there, so somebody decided to plunk a swastika on it. It's similar to the SS-RUC and PSSNI posters I used to see a number of years back, with the SS rendered as lightning runes. That was a dig at perceived police heavy-handedness... ironically both sides referred to the police as SS-RUC / PSSNI at various times since they did batter the rioters of both sides.

Man I’m on a roll this week.