Martina Purdy
Smoke rises as a police officer stands between vehicles while blocking a road to stop anti-immigrant protesters from reaching Sandyknowes Roundabout. Photo: OSV News / Isabel Infantes, Reuters. The Bishop of Down and Connor took time to visit international staff at a Belfast hospital, after the homes and businesses of immigrants were viciously targeted last week in his diocese. “You are not alone,” the Bishop told nurses and other staff after a wave of orchestrated violence in which families were forced from their homes in Belfast under police escort while hundreds of masked individuals, mostly youths, roamed the streets, burning cars, homes and businesses.
The race-hate riots, which made global headlines, came in the wake of a vicious knife attack on a vulnerable man in North Belfast, who suffered life-changing injuries on June 12. A Sudanese man Hadi Alodid (30) was subsequently arrested and charged with the attempted murder of Stephen Ogilvie.
The bishop described an emotional hour-long visit to the Royal Victoria Hospital, during which he met foreign-born members of staff, telling them. “I just wanted you to know how much we need you and how much we care about you.”
He also spoke of young Indian workers who were “terrified” of their homes being burned down – and a young African man who confided that he arrived at work “physically quivering with fear. “He told me,” said the bishop, “that he looked out the window all night waiting for something to happen.”
As well as a press statement, Bishop McGuckian addressed the issue in a homily at St Anne’s Church, Belfast, to celebrate the Feast of the Sacred Heart and the jubilee anniversaries of fifteen priests in the diocese.
In a press release the bishop also condemned the coordinated senseless violent attacks on the homes and businesses of immigrants in Belfast. “All of us have a responsibility to de-escalate societal tension rather than stoke the flames of racism.” He said destruction and attacks on our streets would not resolve “real and tangible community concerns regarding safety and accountability.”
Bishop McGuckian called for a meaningful conversation between politicians, community leaders and statutory agencies who “need to listen and act.”
Also speaking on the weekend, Archbishop Eamon Martin told the congregation at Mass in Lurgan Parish, Dromore, that he was “very conscious” of the fear and anxiety people were feeling after the knife attack; however, “racism is a grave sin and Christians like us must stand strongly against it”.