Let’s just revisit last week’s terrifying scenes in Belfast. First Minister Michelle O'Neill described the disorder as "outright thuggery", saying: "Groups of masked men burning families out of their homes is nothing less than disgusting cowardice."
These horrifying attacks are ostensibly in response to a very serious assault with a knife committed on 8 June. Hadi Alodid, who is Sudanese, attacked Stephen Ogilvie, who has been left with injuries to his face and back and lost an eye. This is clearly tragic. But what does this have to do with Black and brown families being terrorised, threatened and harmed? Some media outlets and prominent far-right voices who have whipped up racism are now capitalising in an ugly way on a family’s tragedy, to terrorise innocent citizens and manifest further hatred of marginalised communities.
People in Belfast, Northern Ireland, burn down a grocery store owned by an immigrant following the stabbing of a North Belfast man by a Sudanese national refugee. 9 June 2026. Photo: Getty
Imagine if every time a white man hurt a woman, other women came together and set fire to random white men’s homes and cars. Imagine if we brought our torches and baseball bats into the streets and took vengeance arbitrarily. Consider the response of those same men if women applied the same vigilante justice. A woman is killed by a man in the UK, on average, every three days: 120 to 130 women each year. More than half of these women are murdered by a current or former intimate partner. The great majority are killed inside their own homes. And yet vigilante justice from women would not be tolerated: headlines would be bold, sentencing would be severe and feminism would be demonised if even a few women took revenge for this constant onslaught. There is somehow a societal expectation that far-right white men will take to the streets with weapons every now and again, but women are expected to take whatever those same men dish out to us.
Northern Ireland is one of the most dangerous parts of the UK or Europe to be a woman. The region has struggled with disproportionately high rates of femicide. In 2025, a parliamentary committee was formed to focus on this problem. Tonia Antoniazzi MP, chair of the Northern Ireland affairs committee, said: “The unacceptable prevalence of violence against women and girls in Northern Ireland is not just a statistic – but a grim daily reality for many. The scale of the problem should shock us all into action. As a committee, we are determined to shine a light on the experiences of those affected and will be examining what more the government and others can do to put an end to an intolerable situation that must not go on any longer.”
The reality is, when white women complain that white men have hurt them, they are called liars and gold-diggers by the manosphere
Where is the outrage from these masked men about the disproportionate violence against women and girls? Why is there never any suggestion of vigilante justice against white men who kill the women they purport to love? The reality is, when white women complain that white men have hurt them or sexually assaulted them, they are called liars and gold-diggers by this same manosphere, far-right demographic. None of those men supported the #MeToo movement. Only when the alleged perpetrator is Black or brown do they believe us, because it suits their racist agenda. Unless, of course, that man is celebrated and exceptionalised – Bill Cosby, or a footballer, or similar – and then we are “making it up” again.
A burned-out car on a street in Belfast, Northern Ireland, 10 June 2026, following disorder across parts of Belfast. Photo: Conor Mccaughley / Getty Images
The fact is that almost all the men who kill women in Northern Ireland are white because Northern Ireland is 96.6% white and white men commit almost all of the crimes. There are only 2,379 asylum seekers in the whole of Northern Ireland, according to the latest figures. That tiny number of humans who’ve fled for their lives are trying to find peace and make opportunities for themselves somewhere new.
Stephen Ogilvie’s family said in a statement that the unrest was "not welcome", adding that they did not want this "terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility … We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including in our healthcare system and hospitality sector and we depend on them to make our country work."
A Nigerian man, who wanted to remain anonymous, told the BBC his car had been set on fire in the Rathcoole estate in County Antrim, and has said he fears the attackers will try to kill him next. His home has been targeted three times in the last five months and he says he regrets the day he moved to Northern Ireland to study as he has experienced years of direct and indirect racism. Imagine if he tried to take revenge. Imagine the consequences, the fallout. He won’t, because, apart from anything else, he knows he’s in a tiny minority. And honestly, we need to make far-right voices into a tiny minority as a matter of urgency.
Deborah Frances-White hosts The Guilty Feminist podcast. Her latest book ‘Six Conversations We’re Scared to Have’ has just been published in paperback by Virago.