Violent protests swept through Belfast on Tuesday evening, and houses, cars and bins were set ablaze as anger over a knife attack boiled over into fresh disorder. Several families were left homeless.
The violence came after Monday’s attack, in which Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese man, was charged with attempted murder after a man in his 40s was badly hurt. That victim was Stephen Ogilvy, who lost his left eye and has damage to his right eye. For people searching what the Chimney Corner Hotel unrest means now, it is the scale of the fallout that stands out: one man said the fire destroyed the home he had lived in for 13 years, leaving him with what he called a feeling he will never get over.
The damage spread beyond one street. By the end of the evening, the disorder had left several families without homes, while police and politicians were urging calm as more officers were deployed across the city. Public transport was also closing early in anticipation of further unrest, a sign that the authorities expected the unrest to continue beyond Tuesday night.
That is the sharp contradiction at the center of the city’s response: calls for restraint were being made at the same time as the police presence was being increased and travel plans were being pulled back. The immediate question now is not whether the violence caused damage — it clearly did — but whether the arrest and attempted murder charge will be enough to prevent another night of reprisals.
