An Update from Belfast

Summary

Podcast Summary: "An Update from Belfast" – It Could Happen Here (June 23, 2026)

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Episode Overview

This episode of It Could Happen Here, hosted by Robert Evans, delivers a gripping update from Belfast following a wave of racist riots earlier in June 2026. Rather than focus on the violence itself, the episode centers on the remarkable grassroots community response that emerged in the aftermath. Through a guest essay and firsthand account by Belfast-based writer Lee Hurley, listeners are offered a powerful narrative of compassion, solidarity, and resilience as ordinary people stepped up to help those targeted and displaced by racist violence.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Setting the Context: Recent Riots in Belfast

• Background of Events:

  • On June 8, 2026, a man was stabbed in Belfast by a refugee, sparking citywide racist riots targeting non-white residents and immigrants (05:11).
  • Homes and businesses were destroyed; people fled for their safety.
  • "The racist riots... mobs of bigots ran through the city forcing people out of their homes for not being white..." (02:57 – Robert Evans).

• Deep-Rooted Divisions:

  • The city's history, post-Troubles identity politics, and ongoing sectarianism provide a context for rapid escalation.
  • "Although the days of bombs and murders... are spoken in the past tense... the beliefs, culture, and division that fueled the fighting are still just as strongly held..." (06:34 – Lee Hurley).

2. Ripple Effects on Daily Life

• Infrastructure Shut-Down:

  • Shops, schools, public transport shuttered; the city entered a state of fear and chaos for three days (10:54).
  • Ordinary routines were upended; families displaced; uncertainty loomed over daily safety.

• Impact on Migrants and Minorities:

  • Many non-white and immigrant families were forced to flee or live under severe threat.
  • The true scale of displacement remains unclear, as many left without seeking official help (11:54).

3. Media Portrayals vs. Lived Reality

• Challenging Stereotypes:
  • Contrary to headlines, Lee emphasizes Belfast's vibrant culture, beauty, and capacity for warmth.
  • "Belfast is a beautiful city, rich in culture, history, world renowned for its food... and if you would believe it, it's welcome in nature." (05:46 – Lee Hurley).

4. The Community Mobilizes: Grassroots Help in Crisis

• Invisible Helpers:

  • Ordinary people quietly sprang into action, organizing food banks, moving at-risk families, and providing essentials despite threats from paramilitary groups.
  • "But our helpers moved quietly and in the shadows, without fuss or fanfare." (12:12 – Lee Hurley).
  • Community aid efforts were more effective – and safer – when kept discreet due to the risk of reprisal.

• Volunteer Networks:

  • Efforts coordinated via WhatsApp, phone trees, and Google Docs; resources (food, clothes, transport) shared between ad-hoc groups across the city.
  • "WhatsApp groups were created, phone numbers shared and Google Doc databases thrown together across the city." (21:42 – Lee Hurley).

5. Personal Account of Coordination (Lee & Elle)

• How the Food Bank Began:

  • Lee's fiancée, Elle, "couldn’t sit and do nothing anymore" and arranged a community hall for relief efforts (16:25).
  • A simple PayPal fundraiser spread rapidly, with donations pouring in globally—particularly from Minnesota (16:59).

• Operations & Stories:

  • Volunteers from all backgrounds, including immigrants and refugees, pitched in together.
  • "One woman came because she was in need of food for herself, but she asked if she could take some extra to make meals for others... we had 30 containers of home-cooked halal curry to deliver to homes." (19:42 – Lee Hurley).
  • Supplies ranged from food staples to diapers and sanitary products; volunteers routinely risked their safety to deliver aid to affected neighborhoods (23:09).

6. Risks and Limitations

• Danger of Retaliation:

  • Helpers faced real violence and intimidation from paramilitaries for perceived interference.
  • "There's a dark rumor that Northern Ireland has the best knee surgeons in the world. Due to the paramilitary's favourite punishment style of kneecapping..." (23:33 – Lee Hurley).
  • Many hid their volunteer work even from neighbors for fear of reprisal.

• Limits of Community Action:

  • Aid provided hope and relief but couldn't undo the devastation of homes lost, persistent fear, or the lack of systemic solutions.
  • "What does some toilet roll and a few vegetables matter when someone's car has been burnt out? How does a bag of rice compensate for having to leave your home? It just doesn't." (25:37 – Lee Hurley).

7. Absence of Government Support

• Failure of Institutions:

  • Absence of effective response or contingency planning from authorities questioned by many in the community.
  • "Why was it left to the people to take action? ... Many people are rightly wondering where their government was in all this." (24:12 – Lee Hurley).

• Need for Systemic Change:

  • Community organizing filled urgent gaps, but a sustainable, official response is direly needed to prevent recurrence.

8. Enduring Threads: Hope and Solidarity

• Hope as a Lifeline:

  • The community is left with little but hope—hope the help made a difference and hope they’ll never have to repeat the experience, though many fear otherwise.
  • "When we decided we were going to do something to help, that's all. We started with hope. And now, a week later... it's all we're left with." (26:11 – Lee Hurley).

• The Real Face of Belfast:

  • Lee concludes by emphasizing kindness, humanity, and multicultural community as Belfast's defining qualities.
  • "I think it’s also a city rich in kindness, humanity and compassion. It is a city that has shown it can and will come together when it really matters, even if you can't always see it. That's the real face of Belfast." (26:53 – Lee Hurley).

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Notable Quotes & Moments

• On the Fear and the Threat:
  • "Fear is endemic here, but there were helpers. Hundreds, in fact. But our helpers moved quietly and in the shadows..." (12:12 – Lee Hurley)
• On Community Action:
  • "For three days, people who had never met before stood side by side sorting food parcels. Strangers took strangers into their car and into their homes." (20:12 – Lee Hurley)
• On Risk and Resilience:
  • "For many community volunteers, this was a case of heart over mind. They were driving into loyalist strongholds that had been rioting just hours before..." (23:09 – Lee Hurley)
• On Hope:
  • "We have a lot of problems and very little solution... What does some toilet roll and a few vegetables matter when someone's car has been burnt out? ... But maybe it will bring a small bit of hope." (25:37 – Lee Hurley)
• On Solidarity:
  • "Thank you to everyone who I met, but never got the names off... Thank you to everyone who donated from across the world. That support meant everything to us and allowed us to help those who needed it the most." (27:00 – Lee Hurley)

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Timeline of Important Segments

| Timestamp | Segment | |-----------|---------| | 02:57 | Robert Evans introduces Belfast riots and Lee Hurley's firsthand account | | 05:11 | Lee Hurley contextualizes the riots amid Belfast’s culture/history | | 10:54 | The city’s infrastructure and daily life breaks down during riots | | 12:12 | Description of community’s quiet, underground mutual aid network | | 16:25 | Personal account of launching pop-up relief at a church hall | | 19:42 | Notable story of a refugee cooking for others, acts of solidarity | | 21:42 | How volunteers built informal networks to meet needs citywide | | 23:09 | The personal risks faced by helpers and the looming threat of violence | | 24:12 | Critique of absent government response, calls for systemic change | | 25:37 | Reflection on limitations of grassroots charity, role of hope | | 26:53 | Closing thoughts on Belfast’s true identity and message of thanks |

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Conclusion

This episode gives voice to the real Belfast—a city battered by racism, haunted by history, but ultimately defined by the ordinary people who show up when it matters most. Through Lee Hurley's vivid account, listeners witness the profound impact of mutual aid and the ongoing struggle for safety, justice, and dignity in a fractured society.

Final message:
"We are the real community of Belfast and we are nothing without you." (27:08 – Lee Hurley)

Transcript

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Hey everybody, Robert Evans here and this is it could happen here. I wanted to talk today a little bit about Belfast and about what happened there earlier this month. The racist riots in which mobs of bigots ran through the city forcing people out of their homes for not being white, destroying businesses, terrorizing people. It was horrific. And if you spent any time watching live streams or videos or just the coverage, I'm sure you felt as frightened both for those people directly and just for the future as many of us. And in the wake of something like that, it can often be hard to know like what to do and what would I do if this were happening in my community, right? Like what is the proper response, especially if there isn't an immediate response in the moment that meets the rage of one of these nights and actually is able to stop it. If these bigots are able to go through and attack and harm people, how do you both respond to that and help the people who have been hurt? And how do you deal with the fact that that could be a very dangerous sit, you know, especially if you've still got these mobs of people out there who are willing to hurt the folks that you're trying to protect and anyone potentially trying to protect them. Well, obviously the people who live in Belfast are dealing with that problem immediately. And so the best place to go if I wanted to know what that was like was to someone who's been living through it. And fortunately I found the posts on Blue sky of Lee Hurley. He's a Belfast based writer, he's the owner of DailyCannon.com Lee also runs the Trans Agenda, which records and documents anti trans media coverage in UK papers. You can subscribe@trans agenda.info I reached out to Lee after seeing some posts that Lee had made about what he had witnessed in terms of the local response to people trying to organize to help folks who had been attacked and brutalized. And Lee wrote an essay for us and and read it and thankfully was good enough to do both of those things. So this is, you know, some direct first hand reporting both on what it was like to live in Belfast while that was going on and what it's like to watch the community spring into action to try and make right Some of the wrongs that were done. So without further ado, here's Lee.

[Ryan Reynolds]

Last week, Belfast hit the headlines worldwide. In usual Belfast fashion, it wasn't for anything good. On Monday, 8th of June, 2026, a man was attacked and stabbed in north Belfast by a refugee. It was a vicious attack caught on camera that resulted in the victim losing an eye and being placed in their medically induced coma. At the time of recording, the victim remains in hospital. The next day, the city exploded. Riots took place across Belfast. Fires raged and people were forced to flee from their homes. Today I want to talk to you about what happened. What really happened. Not the attack and not the rats themselves, but what went on in the hours, in the days after that, beyond the brick throwing and the burning and the fear. Because something good did happen. And I think it's important that the world knows about that. You need to know that Belfast isn't all bad. It isn't what you saw on the tv, that while the horror happened on the streets, the rest of the city said, enough. We mobilized. This is the story of the real community of Belfast. Belfast is a beautiful city, rich in culture, history, world renowned for its food, and if you would believe it, it's welcome in nature. Ask anyone who's visited for recommendations about what to do in the city and you'll likely hear them rave about the Titanic museum, a game of thrones tour, or the stunning architecture. They'll tell you how nice everybody they met was. You'll be told about some wonderful restaurant they visited and the amazing trad music session they stumbled upon in some Quint backstreet pub. They'll tell you they want to go back. One of our most popular tourist activities is a tour of the key sites they played key roles in our civil war. Taxi drivers will take you to the places where blood was shed, bombs exploded, and those left behind still visit the morn. The tours aren't even that expensive. Here in Belfast, we've made a small industry out of the darkest parts of our country's history. The troubles. Although the days of bombs and murders and army controlled streets are spoken often past tense, by those tour guides, the beliefs, culture and division that fueled the fighting are still just as strongly held in many communities throughout the city as they were on the day that peace agreement was signed. Signed nearly 30 years ago. Belfast is a beautiful city, but it's a city that requires context to be fully understood and some would argue, fully appreciated. Like almost all wars, the trouble centered around identity and access to resources. On one side, the nationalists or Catholics who identify with and wish the country to be a united Ireland. On the other, Royalists or Protestants who want Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK Division goes deeper than that and is much more complicated. But it's a bit like the left right divide of Democrats and Republicans in the us. Knowing what side someone falls on can usually tell you a lot about their other beliefs and morals. Even international politics gets divvied up here to one side or the other. Loyalists support Israel, Nazis support Palestine. Of course, it's not that simple. Not all Protestants and Catholics hold the same viewpoints, but for the sake of brevity and generalizing and this is of course a very short and brief explanation of what is actually a very complex history that spans hundreds of years, we simply don't have the time to go in there, all with any more depth than that. It's not the focus of this podcast anyway, but even that oversimplified summary should help you see the contextual ends through its Belfast and what happened must be viewed. And it is within this context where tribalism and nationality and identity are so important that whole housing estates advertise theirs by painting their curbstones in the colors of the British or Irish flag. Giant murals celebrating both murderers and the murdered alike are painted on the sides of houses where hate for the other continues and where resources are fiercely protected and fought over that this story takes place. Tension has been bubbling up about migration for the last several years in Northern Ireland and elsewhere. Just last summer we saw riots in nearby Ballymena and in Belfast after an alleged sexual assault took place with the accused perpetrators being two teenage boys from Romania. Houses and businesses were smashed up and burnt if the riders believed there was any connection whatsoever to an immigrant, no matter where in the world they hailed from. I remember driving through Botanic, a vibrant, multicultural area of Belfast we live a few minutes away from and seeing business after business destroyed. The hookah bar, the international supermarket, cafes. Several months later, the charges against those two teenage boys were quietly dropped due to significant evidential developments. Like everything else here, attitudes to immigration and race in general has a pretty clear split between our two main communities. Throughout loyalist areas you will find graffiti and signs stapled on the lamp posts. Foreigners not welcome here. No Muslims allowed stop the boats. A lot of the time these vitriolic methods aren't even spelled correctly. Education is just one of the many areas neglected here that nobody ever riots over. That's not to say there's no such thing as a racist nationalist. There are everywhere. Belfast is of course no different on that front when this most recent horrific attack took place in a city where immigrants, legal, illegal, refugee, asylum seeker, doesn't actually matter, in fact, because you don't have to be a migrant to be targeted, you just have to be non white. Whether already treated, escape routes for every problem where racist riots have become something of a summer tradition. Everyone knew what was coming. Within hours, social media was full of AI generated posters telling people to take to the streets to protest immigrants. When they said protest, we all knew they meant riot. And so the city shut down for three days. Shops, schools, community centers, swimming pools, public transport and businesses were held hostage to racism. Some places opened for a few hours in the mornings before having to close again. The buses were running, the buses were off. Half the city worked from home. Fake protest posters popped up on social media. Everyday life and routine was thrown into disarray and chaos. But it was when the sun went down that the actual horror happened. From the comfort of our homes, with the blinds dying, many of us sat scarred, scrolling social media, trying to find out what was happening. Via helicopter footage streamed live on YouTube, we watched our city get destroyed. We texted each other and made phone calls and even shit posted online, trying to find some levity or light in the situation. For others, those days changed their lives forever. They watched the cars get burnt out and along with the metal and the tires, tomorrow's school run. And transport went up in smoke sand from the last family trip to the beach. Still in the footwells, a favorite cardigan left in the passenger seat. Gone. All of it gone. Whole homes gone. Whether physically set on fire or threatened through the letterboxes or driven out by a fear many of us will never have to know, the true number of people who fled their homes since the 8th of June is hard to gauge. Some have gone to stay with relatives or friends across the city. Some have moved to completely new places, waiting to feel safe enough to try again. Many have left the country altogether. And who can blame them? That is our loss. They say in times of trouble, look for the helpers. But here in Belfast, you wouldn't have seen too many at first glance. That's for the same reason you didn't see people rise up and take on the rioters face to face. Fear. Fear of personal reprisal from the loyalist paramilitary organizations. Fear of alerting the rioters and making the situation even worse for those you're trying to help. Fear is endemic here, but there were helpers. Hundreds, in fact. But our helpers moved quietly and in the shadows, without foster fanfare. People across Belfast began taking action almost immediately as everyday life began to return to normal and schools and shops cautiously reopened. Strangers became small heroes. Families were moved from their homes under darkness and children taken to and from school, the elderly and sick and pregnant accompanied to hospital and doctor appointments in church halls and community centers. Supermarket sized food banks sprung up from nothing. Money was raised from all over the world where there was need, somebody met it. Then they returned and asked who they could help next. In those moments, the real Belfast was seen.

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On Thursday afternoon, 48 hours after it all started, my fiance arrived home from work. Let's call her Elle. I couldn't sit and do nothing anymore. So here's what is happening. She said she'd already contacted a church and arranged use of their hall. She contacted people she knew through her community work to get word out. I posted about it on Blue sky, not mentioning anything about where it would be located out of fears we'd be targeted and someone asked if there was a fundraiser. There wasn't. There hadn't been anything just a few hours ago. Not thinking it would get much attention, I threw up a link to my PayPal and said I'd pass the money on if anyone wanted to donate. Thousands came flooding in from all over the world, particularly from Minnesota. Saturday came and we were up at 6am to hit the wholesalers, having roped in another friend to help with her car. By 9am we were at the church with two carloads of food and essentials, not knowing if it would just be the three of us standing there all day with a load of food. None of us had ever done this before. Although Al has experience working with immigrants and asylum seekers in other areas, we couldn't have been more wrong. Through the networks Al had formed over the previous 48 hours, an organization started sending us addresses of people who needed food. Volunteers kept arriving. People flowed in with donations of food and money and essentials. By the afternoon, people were dropping stuff in, taking photos of our board that showed items we were low in and then going shopping to get those items Specifically, hundreds of food parcels were packed up. Need one for a family of five went to call across the hall as El coordinated everything that needed to go out. What ages of the children do they need? Nappies, Came a reply without fail. Everybody just pitched in with whatever was needed to be done. Others dealt with people who came in themselves and needed help. Drivers sent from other small charities arrived to collect parcels for people they were helping. I found myself managing the stock running to the shop and the wholesalers time and time again to fill up items we couldn't keep up with. Basics like oil and sugar, flour, rice, pasta, soap, sanitary products, nappies. The list was endless, as was the number of people we were trying to help. For three days, people who had never met before stood side by side sorting food parcels. Strangers took strangers into their car and into their homes. Is this definitely Halal was desperately googled by a lot of white people. I've lost count of the amount of people I've met over the last week, but I know it's more than I would usually meet in a year. To be fair, I'm not actually that social. But it was still a lot of people. I don't think I got the names of half of the ones I worked alongside in that pop up food bank that my partner seemed imagine got a thin air using the relationship she'd built up through her job. But it didn't matter. There wasn't time for small talk. It was more. Hello, thank you for helping. Pass me some cooking oil, please. Are we out of deodorant again? That's not to say there was no bonding. When you share an intense experience like that, under the weight of emotions we were working with, there's a connection built. There was a sense of community that I've never experienced before and given the circumstances, I sincerely hope to never experience again. But that seems unlikely. In that church hall where we ran the food bank, nobody needed to be told what to do. There was no induction or even delegation of rules. For three days. People turned up and they found themselves something to do. And I don't know if it will surprise you, because it shouldn't, but there were many migrants and refugees who turned up to help themselves. One woman came because she was in need of food for herself, but she asked if she could take some extra to make meals for others. Within two hours, we had 30 contains of home cooked halal curry to deliver to homes. Thanks to her work. I'm not sure I've ever been able to truly define what love or selflessness or solidarity mean. But I'm pretty sure that's what it looks like. This was not work being done by professional charities or organizations. That's not to say they weren't doing anything, far from it. But I want to take a moment to press upon you that this was everyday people figuring it out together, many of whom had never done anything like this before. WhatsApp groups were created, phone numbers shared and Google Doc databases thrown together across the city. Volunteers together and apart. Does anyone have clothes for a baby? Can someone drive a lady to an appointment tomorrow at 10am? Resources were shared across makeshift donation centers. If one centre had run out of diapers, another was sharing their supply. Volunteers drove from centres to shops to homes, trying to find what was required. It was beautiful chaos and it worked. Nobody had to be there. Almost all the volunteers had arrived through word of mouth. I don't think I saw one single social media post or advert calling out for help, apart from the one I posted on our last day. Help just came. Like me, many of the volunteers felt compelled to do something. Sitting at home beyond the locked door and watching he fill the city via live stream just wasn't cutting it anymore. One volunteer told me that when the violence erupted, they simply couldn't get the affected people out of her head. They took Friday afternoon off work to deliver food and essential supplies to families who were too afraid to leave their homes. More than anything, she said, she wanted to show the people of Belfast Kerr and newcomers to our city are welcome. At a time when fear and uncertainty was affecting so many families, it felt important to her to offer practical support and remind people that they were not alone. The work people have been doing and are still doing is not without risk. I spoke earlier of fear. There's a dark rumour that Northern Ireland has the best knee surgeons in the world. Due to the paramountrie's favourite punishment style of kneecapping, where they place a gun to the back of your knee and pull the trigger, blowing out the front. If you live in a community run by the Pars and you piss them off, you're gonna know about it. It might be a brick through your window, graffiti on your door, or a visit from the local police to tell you they would strongly advise you leave the premises and find somewhere else to live. For many community volunteers, this was a case of heart overmind. They were driving into loyalist strongholds that had been rioting just hours before to deliver food to the very people that had been targeted. But their compassion for those sitting hungry, tired and scared outweighed the fear they felt for their own safety. Many of the volunteers who helped will never tell their neighbors what they did. They may never tell anyone about it. Drivers arrived back to the hall with stories of families sitting in the dark with no electric in the meter, of mothers hiding in the back room by the door with their babies in their arms, ready to run should a flaming bottle come through the window. If you've wondered for a moment what kept us motivated, now you know. Some volunteers sprung into action from the first moment, and some are still going. There are still people from ethnic minority communities in great need. I cannot imagine the fear they're still living in. But why was it left of the people to take action? I've heard that question asked several times during the last week. It's hard to know. Many people are rightly wondering where their government was in all this. Where are our politicians? Yes, some get on their podiums from time to time to condemn the violence. But if it wasn't for the community on the ground and the wonderful, generous people who donated money, all of those people that we helped would still be sitting there hungry, tired and scared even more than they are now. I know that here on the ground we're putting together a contingency plan so that we're ready to spring in the action should this happen once more. And we've done that without any of the resources at the disposal of the government, albeit in our own small way. So why, after so many summers of this happening, do we know nothing of any government plan? If there was any sort of plan, surely we would be seeing it in action by now. The sad reality is this is likely going to happen again, probably this very summer. We have a lot of problems and very little solution. How do we guarantee housing is safe in a city that's littered with hate? How do we say to people, we've given you a food parcel with a week's worth of food, but next week you're going to have to sort it out yourself and go to the shop. Next week you're going to have to walk past your neighbor's smashed windows and the graffiti send Muslims out. Next week you're going to have to walk past the house of that loyalist who insists on calling you slurs every time he sees you. Even as I'm recording this, there are new calls for so called protests over the next few days. There's a rumor a non white man was arrested for trying to break into someone's house. I'm not being coy by saying no, Mike. That's the base level of racism we're currently operating with here. And an incident like that is enough to set this all off again. For the rest of the summer, eyes on both sides of the immigration argument will skim over news articles searching for a race or nationality to be mentioned. I cannot imagine how it feels to be a member of an ethnic minority and be on tenterhooks hoping and praying someone of color does not commit a crime. You may be forgiven for thinking that we have absolutely no other crimes occurring on a daily basis, especially none committed by white people. Of course we do. They're the majority. We have one of the highest rates of violence against women and girls in the whole of Europe. Since 2020, 30 women have been violently killed by a man, a local man. Did they riot then? I'll give you two guesses. Our community action was not enough. That's the sad reality. What does some toilet roll and a few vegetables matter when someone's car has been burnt out? How does a bag of rice compensate for having to leave your home? It just doesn't. But maybe it will bring a small bit of hope. When we decided we were going to do something to help, that's all. We started with hope. And now, a week later, after thousands of pounds worth of food, electric vouchers, phones, SIM cards, blankets and pajamas have passed in and out of our doors into the homes and emergency accommodation across Belfast, it's all we're left with. Hope that we helped. Hope that we won't ever have to do it again. As one recipient of financial help put it, the real value is not in the amount, it's the kindness, humanity and compassion behind it. At the very start of this podcast, I told you Belfast is a beautiful city, rich in culture and history. But to borrow the wonderful words of that recipient, I think it's also a city rich in kindness, humanity and compassion. It is a city that has shown it can and will come together when it really matters, even if you can't always see it. That's the real face of Belfast. I want to say thank you. Thank you to everyone who I met, but never got the names off the people I'd never have met, and I hope I don't have to meet again. Thank you to everyone who donated from across the world. That support meant everything to us and allowed us to help those who needed it the most. And I also want to say thank you to the people here in Belfast and Northern Ireland who have been the most affected by these riots. To the immigrants, the refugees and the asylum seekers. Thank you for coming here for adding to our community and for becoming our community. We are the real community of Belfast and we are nothing without you. It Could Happen Here is a production of Cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from Cool Zone Media, Visit our website coolzonemedia.com or check us out on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can now find sources for It Could Happen here listed directly in Episode Descriptions. Thanks for listening.

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