Fear and fallout three months on from Northern Ireland's race riots

The reverberations of Northern Ireland's race riots are still being felt three months later, particularly among displaced communities. The violence, which erupted after footage of a knife attack was shared widely online, saw protesters targeting the homes of refugees and asylum seekers. Many were forced to flee with nothing, and the Housing Executive reported 76 households presented as homeless. Community workers on the ground, however, indicated the number was significantly higher when including those who stayed with friends or left the country.

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And even then, when we were down town collecting people, we were then also being asked to go somewhere else, you know, to pick somebody else up. There's a lift needed to take somebody to work, lift needed to take somebody into the hospital for a shift. There's somebody coeliac, no food in the house, pick up such and such at an address.

Amidst the chaos, a network of support groups quickly organized on WhatsApp, providing crucial assistance to over 200 people. These groups offered everything from safe transport out of violent areas to food bank support and interpretation services. One community worker, known as Anne, described messages coming in rapidly, requiring constant efforts to help those in need.

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I was trying to reassure them. I don't speak Arabic and they were just coming along. It was blind trust. But then I was on adrenaline thinking: 'I have to keep these people safe'. Imagine you were being brought somewhere and you didn't know where you were going. I just thought: 'God, these poor people might not even understand what I'm saying'.

Another worker, Ciara, recounted reassuring four Sudanese women who feared their home would be targeted, emphasizing the blind trust placed in her by individuals who didn't understand her language. Carolyn, a veteran community worker, undertook a massive effort, transporting 22 people to her home 60 miles away from Belfast, where they stayed for a week. She recalled the trauma and distress of the families upon arrival, many without even a change of clothes.

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It was dark, nearly midnight, when they got here, and there was a lot of crying and hysteria from the kids and the families, just not knowing where they were and stuff like that. They were traumatised.