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LAST UPDATE | 1 hr ago
A MAN HAS been arrested in relation to a controversial loyalist bonfire in Co Tyrone which has been topped with a replica mosque.
The bonfire in Moygashel also features banners reading “secure our borders” and “end the threat of radical Islam”.
The Moygashel bonfire is one of around 300 across the North which will be burned on 10 and 11 July, ahead of the Orange Order’s annual 12 July parades.
The bonfire in Moygashel is due to be set alight on Friday night.
The PSNI has said it is “aware of the item placed on top of the bonfire in Moygashel”.
A PSNI spokesperson said a 56-year-old man has been arrested on suspicion of contravention of Article 9 of the Public Order (NI) Order 1987.
This legislation relates to the use of words or behaviour or display of written material likely to stir up hatred or arouse fear.
The 56-year-old man remains in custody at this time.
Speaking to The Journal, the Church of Ireland’s Archbishop of Dublin said that the “idea of incinerating something that is of essential affection to a faith body, which is entitled under freedom of religion to practice its religion, is something that one could only condemn”.
Archbishop Michael Jackson added that it is “extremely alarming” to see sectarianism “morph” and “shift from sectarianism to racism, while retaining the sectarian component”.
“I think is a massive wake-up call to us all,” said Jackson.
He added that it is “abhorrent” and not only “unacceptable, but corrosive and destructive”.
Ammesty International meanwhile described it as a “vile display” and a “blatant attempt to stir up anti-Muslim hatred and intimidate local families”.
Patrick Corrigan, Amnesty International’s Northern Ireland director, said it “must be met with a decisive response by the police”.
“The placing of an effigy of a mosque on top of a bonfire amounts to incitement to hatred directed at real people who live, work and raise families in Northern Ireland,” added Corrigan.
Northern Ireland Secretary Hilary Benn has described the bonfire display a “sickening and cowardly act of intimidation”.
The placement of a replica mosque on the Moygashel bonfire is a sickening and cowardly act of intimidation.
— Hilary Benn (@hilarybennmp) July 9, 2026
This is not about tradition, and in no way does it represent the vast majority of people in Northern Ireland.
We must stand united and completely reject such hatred.
Elsewhere, SDLP councillor Carl Whyte described the display on the bonfire as “absolutely disgusting”.
He told the BBC Good Morning Ulster programme that the “singling out of an entire religion, an entire faith, is just shameful”.
Fermanagh and South Tyrone Sinn Féin MLA Colm Gildernew described the display on the bonfire as “deplorable”, while Ulster Unionist Party Leader Jon Burrows called for the “immediate removal of the offensive display”.
Meanwhile, the Moygashel Bonfire Association has described the bonfire as an act of “political protest” against “uncontrolled illegal mass immigration”.
In a statement on social media, it said it had “noted the predicable fury in respect of the act of political protest at our bonfire site this year”.
It claimed that the replica of the mosque and banners is not “opposition is to people, but rather to ideology and Government policy”.
“Once this is appreciated, then it is very clear this is no more and no less than an act of protest, which is lawful protected expression,” it added.
Last year’s bonfire in Moygashel, and the one before that, were similarly controversial.
The bonfire last year was topped with an effigy of refugees in a boat.
The boat contained more than a dozen life-sized mannequins wearing life jackets, and beneath were several placards, with one saying “stop the boats” and another “veterans before refugees”.
The Moygashel bonfire has become well known in recent years for contentious displays.
In 2024, a mock PSNI vehicle was burnt on the top of the bonfire and in 2023 a boat designed to represent the post-Brexit Irish Sea economic border was torched.
The PSNI has been approached for comment.
Last month in Moygashel, the PSNI removed a banner from a children’s playground, stating it was being treated as a hate crime.
-With additional reporting from Press Association
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