Bonfire with mosque replica placed on top set alight

A bonfire with a replica mosque placed on top of it has been lit before the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) could remove the effigy.

Police said it "commenced a significant and complex policing operation" to remove a "hate display".

A spokesperson said the operation was at an "advanced stage when the bonfire was lit".

The bonfire, in Moygashel in County Tyrone, Northern Ireland, has featured other controversial displays in the past.

A spokesperson for the PSNI said: "Had the bonfire not been lit police would have secured the site and removed the offending material and seized it as evidence."

Police also confirmed a 56-year-old man who was arrested in connection with the effigy has been charged with incitement to hatred and is due to appear before Dungannon Magistrates Court on Friday.

The PSNI added the investigation into this "hate motivated crime" is ongoing.

Chief Superintendent Norman Haslett said: "Hate crime has no place in our society and will not be tolerated.

"That is why tonight we commenced a proactive policing operation to take action and remove the hate display from Moygashel bonfire.

"In advance of police arrival the bonfire was set alight a day in advance to prevent removal of the criminal material."

The PSNI had planned a significant operation in Moygashel, involving a few hundred officers.

Public order units were to have given cover to other officers using specialist equipment to remove the replica of a mosque from the top of the 20m high bonfire.

It is believed they were on standby, waiting for the crowd at the site to reduce in size before moving in during hours of darkness.

But anticipating police action, the bonfire was lit in advance.

The PSNI had been in contact with community representatives during Thursday, urging the removal of the replica and its handover as part of an investigation into a hate crime offence.

Senior officers have told BBC News NI they did not tell them an operation was planned if talks got nowhere.

Sources stated they are "frustrated" that the replica was torched before they could seize it.

There is to be increased engagement with ethnic minority communities in Northern Ireland over coming hours.

This has been described as providing "reassurances" going into the Twelfth.

The former senior PSNI officer Roy McComb said the risks for officers trying to "access something at the height" would have taken time and created tension in the community.

"It's not something that police would have been able to react to with any great amount of speed given the complexity and logistical challenges," he said.

Sinn Féin MLA Colm Gildernew said: "It's absolutely irrefutable that what we're talking about today is racism.

"It's designed to instil fear. It's designed to incite hatred."

Gregory Campbell, the Democratic Unionist Party's security spokesperson, said people had "genuine concerns" about illegal immigration and a "radical Islamic approach" but what happened at Moygashel was "deeply regrettable".

"I think the police should have intervened at an earlier stage to negotiate and talk with the bonfire builders," he told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme.

Social Democratic and Labour Party councillor for the area, Karol McQuade, described organisers of the bonfire as "attention seeking".

He said: "There's fear in the community in Moygashel. There's fear in the Muslim community."

Alliance MLA and policing board member Peter McReynolds said he received "messages of fear from the Muslim community most of yesterday", including a doctor who has lived in Northern Ireland for 20 years but is now considering leaving.

He told the Nolan Show: "It's not acceptable, and I think the condemnation from politicians needs to be a lot stronger."

The Archbishop of Armagh, the Most Rev John McDowell, called the effigy "an expression of deep hostility", not a protest.

Speaking on Good Morning Ulster, he said it wasn't "constructive" to react to immigration in this way and added that people should "try to build up a society which accepts the contribution from all sorts of people because we need it in a small society like Northern Ireland".

The effigy was placed on top of the pyre on Wednesday and the bonfire was due to be lit on Friday.

The lighting of the bonfire comes after a day of condemnation with Justice Minister Naomi Long describing the effigy as a "nauseating spectacle of hatred" and called on the people who built the bonfire to take it down.

Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn said it was as a "sickening and cowardly act of intimidation".

In its statement, Moygashel Bonfire Association said the display might "shock, offend or outrage", but said those involved in making it were exercising their right to freedom of expression.

It is not the first time Moygashel's annual bonfire has featured a contentious display.

In 2025, an effigy of refugees in a boat was placed on top of the bonfire and was set on fire when the bonfire was lit.

In 2024 a replica of a police car was burnt, while in 2023 a picture of the then Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Leo Varadkar and an Irish flag were placed on the bonfire.

Bonfires are lit annually in some unionist areas across Northern Ireland in July to usher in the Twelfth of July, the main date in the parading season.

The majority are lit on 11 July, known as the Eleventh night.

The Twelfth commemorates the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 when the Protestant King William III defeated Catholic King James II.