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Eleventh night bonfire effigies condemned by senior Orangeman

Liam McBurney/PA Wire Rev Mervyn GibsonLiam McBurney/PA Wire
Mervyn Gibson, the Grand Secretary of the Orange Order, said the burning of posters and effigies on bonfires should be treated as a hate crime.

A senior Orangeman has condemned the burning of effigies on bonfires, but says legislation is not the best way to tackle the issue.

Effigies of politicians Naomi Long, Michelle O'Neill and Mary Lou McDonald were hung from a Carrickfergus bonfire.

The Reverend Mervyn Gibson, grand secretary of the Orange Order, said politicians should work with bonfire builders and local communities.

Police said they were gathering evidence of the incident.

"Going back to posters and effigies, there is no question about that, they, for my mind, should be a hate crime," Mr Gibson told Good Morning Ulster.

"Whether they are or not, I don't know. But if you burn an effigy or burn a photograph of someone else, you obviously dislike them so much you hate them, so that would be for me a hate crime."

Niall Carson/PA Media People watching bonfires from a viewpoint in the Belfast hillsNiall Carson/PA Media
People hiked up the Belfast hills for a good view of bonfires which were lit across the city on Monday night

But he said that while one or two bonfires this year caused concern, the vast majority did not cause issues.

"I'm not against regulations, what I'm for is proportionality," he said.

"You don't legislate for a simple one, two or three bonfires, you try and deal with those particular bonfires."

Mr Gibson added that while the burning of effigies and election posters should be treated as hate crimes the jury was out on whether burning flags should be banned in law, although he believed it was wrong.

"Bonfires are about celebration of unionist and loyalist culture and I don't think we need to denigrate another culture or another country so we can celebrate," he said.

Charles McQuillan Sinn Féin's John FinucaneCharles McQuillan
Belfast North MP John Finucane said effigies and election posters on bonfires were criminal acts "designed to deliberately provoke and to offend"

Sinn Féin's John Finucane said that there needed to be an "urgent necessity for leadership".

"For me, this is not culture, these examples are not culture," he said.

"It's not a celebration. They're criminal acts designed to deliberately provoke and to offend."

"It needs to be condemned quickly and unequivocally, and those who hold positions of leadership need to work to ensure that we are not back year after year discussing acts that, quite frankly, make the rest of the world scratch their heads and ask how on earth is this still happening in 2022."