THIS weekend marks the start of Belfast Mela, our biggest celebration of diversity. The programme is once again full to bursting with exciting and fascinating events which underline the richness that our new communities bring.
The event comes as the city remains warmed by the afterglow of the Fleadh and Féile and doubtless many people who are experiencing that Monday morning feeling in the wake of these cultural feasts will be keen for another helping of community-centred entertainment.
But this year’s event comes at a deeply worrying time for the various ethnicities who make up the Mela family. Once again the marching season – and bonfire night in particular – was cynically used as a platform to spout hateful and racist narratives.
Bonfires were plastered with crude and violent anti-black and brown messages, while at the now infamous pyre in Moygashel, near Dungannon, a model of a mosque was burned in a sickening display reminiscent of the hate which was allowed to fester and grow in Nazi Germany throughout the 1980s.
That immigrant families are being burned out of their homes right in front of our eyes is a desperately worrying sign of how deeply the hate is embedded. But just as worrying is the continued insistence of unionist politicians that those behind these vile outpourings of bigotry are somehow motivated by “legitimate concerns”.
It was gratifying to see unionist leaders throw themselves into the Mela celebrations, but even as they give their political imprimatur to the Mela launch, they need to be told in no uncertain terms that photo-opportunities with immigrant communities are not enough. It is vital that when unionists and loyalists target new and vulnerable communities with violent actions or words an uncompromising message must go out that there can be no place within the PUL community for the crude street politics of the far right.
That means not just words of condemnation, that means taking to the streets to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with targeted groups and individuals.That means an end to the side-of-the-mouth “legitimate concerns” references which are invariably contained in post-racist violence statements.
That other mammoth expression of community and solidarity, Belfast Pride, has disinvited Sinn Féin, Alliance and the unionist parties because of their shameful abandonment of our Trans neighbours and friends. If the tide of racist attacks and language continues to rise in unionist/loyalist areas, and if the unionist parties continue to dilute their opposition with cynical references to those “legitimate concerns”, then next year Mela will have an important decision to make. And it is to be hoped they will have the courage to make it.
For now, we concentrate on the joy and spectacle of Mela 2026, but as we immerse ourselves once more in the music, dance and food that so enrich us, we must constantly remind ourselves that a shared city needs worked at all year long.
