TWO-TIER KEIR:
1. Protestors will be met with the full force of the law.
2. Beheaders will be met with sympathetic mental health specialists and woke judges who don't care if they do it again. pic.twitter.com/c7ldlylDGW
— Shrodingers Borderline Normal (@JeremyCordite) June 9, 2026
Related: Belfast burns after knife attack protests.
Footage on Sky News showed infants being carried out of neighbouring homes as flames crackled inside the houses, while a pastor told the BBC people were being forced out of their homes “because they’re black”.
Protesters also attempted to set the Sham Supermarket, a Middle Eastern shop, alight on Donegal Road, just south of the city centre.
Several vehicles, including a police vehicle and a Glider bus on the Newtownards Road, were set on fire in the east of the city earlier in the evening.
The violence was widely condemned across the political spectrum.
Michelle O’Neill, Northern Ireland’s Sinn Fein First Minister, said the burning of homes amounted to “outright thuggery” while Arlene Foster, her DUP predecessor, said she watched the unfolding scenes “with great sadness”.
For O’Neill, some riots are far more acceptable than others:
