Nineteen people have now been arrested after disorder across parts of Northern Ireland this week, including a 16-year-old boy, police have said.
The latest incidents include a suspected hate-motivated arson attack at a house on Shore Road on Thursday night. The fire service was called after a fire was started at the back of the property. Police said the house was empty at the time and no injuries were reported.
Two neighbouring homes were also damaged in the attack. Police said they are treating the incident as hate-motivated arson.
What police say happened overnight
The Police Service of Northern Ireland also said officers were alerted to race-hate graffiti in the Dee Street and Newtownards Road areas of east Belfast.
In Derry, firefighters put out a car fire on the Glenshane Road at about 00:30 BST on Friday. No one was injured, and police are also treating that incident as a hate-motivated arson.
The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service said it received 46 emergency calls on Thursday evening, leading crews to attend 26 incidents across Northern Ireland.
Police said their public order operation will continue through the weekend. Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said protests on Thursday night were “much calmer than we have seen in recent days”.
“There were peaceful protests last night at a number of locations, including Newtownabbey, with no significant incidents of public disorder,” he said. “Our policing operation will remain over the weekend to ensure public order is maintained.”
Community leaders warn of fear among overseas workers
Dr Mukesh Chugh, a doctor who has lived and worked in Derry for more than 20 years, said some overseas healthcare professionals are now questioning whether they should have come to Northern Ireland.
“We hear especially from people who come from different nations and people of different colour - their houses are gone, their cars are gone, their windows are smashed,” he told BBC Radio Foyle’s North West Today programme.
“We’re in a WhatsApp group and there are messages floating that a certain family has been made homeless overnight and they were a family with small kids.”
Dr Chugh said one criminal allegation should not be used to condemn a wider group.
“We should not judge the whole immigrant community because of one act of violence done by some person in the street,” he said. “Same goes for people who are on the roads – I don’t believe they represent the good Northern Irish people.”
How the unrest began
The disorder followed the widespread sharing on social media of footage of a knife attack in north Belfast on Monday night.
Hadi Alodid, 30, originally from Sudan, appeared in court on Wednesday charged with attempted murder over the attack. The victim, Stephen Ogilvie, sustained serious injuries.
Police previously said 12 officers were injured and 16 people were arrested during unrest on Wednesday night. The total number of arrests has now risen to 19.
The sequence matters because the police investigation into the knife attack is one legal process, while attacks on homes, vehicles and public order incidents are separate criminal matters. Social media, as usual, did not pause to appreciate that distinction.
Health staff are “living in fear”
Trevor Lucy, chair of Unison’s Foyle Health Branch, said many medical staff “have been living in fear for the last few days”.
He said staff at Altnagelvin Hospital have been “unusually quiet” this week.
“It’s the fear - they’re just hoping they can get home safely,” he said.
Lucy said some staff are staying at home because they are afraid to go out. He warned that racially motivated disorder in parts of Northern Ireland in recent years could discourage international healthcare workers from taking jobs in the region.
“There is a trend now... people are taking to the streets and doing inappropriate things and I’m afraid it will have an impact,” he said.
Some workers have already left, pastor says
Pastor Jack McKee said he helped people affected on the Crumlin Road in north Belfast on Tuesday night.
He said he entered one house where two female care workers were “absolutely totally traumatised”. According to Pastor McKee, he pleaded with protesters holding bricks outside to give him time to get the women out safely.
He said he knows of at least one nurse who has now left Northern Ireland for England, and six drivers who left on Thursday because they “didn’t feel safe”.
“The people that are being caught up in this are people who contribute to life in Northern Ireland – to the community, to those that are hurting, those that need their help,” he said.
Pastor McKee said many of those involved in the violence are not connected to paramilitary activity, but added there are “many young men that, sadly, just need a reason to come on to streets”.
Transport returns while ministers visit hospital staff
Translink said on Friday that bus and train services were “currently operating as normal, with minimal alterations”, after services were suspended earlier in the week.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill, Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly and Health Minister Mike Nesbitt visited the Mater Hospital in Belfast to show “solidarity with healthcare workers” after reports of threats, intimidation and racist attacks against staff.
O’Neill said healthcare workers provide lifesaving care every day, often in highly pressured conditions, and “deserve to do so safely, with dignity and respect”.
Little-Pengelly said staff show “dedication and professionalism” daily and that abuse will not be tolerated.
Nesbitt said Northern Ireland’s health and social care system would “undoubtedly collapse” without international workers. That is not a slogan. It is a workforce reality, and one now being tested by events outside the hospital gates.
