Community Resilience: A Network of Support Amidst Northern Ireland's Race Riots

While social media buzzes with the organization of riots, a parallel digital movement is underway. A network of organizations dedicated to assisting migrant communities, typically through food banks and interpreter services, has mobilized on WhatsApp.

This coordinated effort has aided over 200 individuals, with volunteers often venturing into dangerous areas to evacuate those targeted to safety. Anne, a representative of one such group, described the incoming messages as overwhelming, stating they arrived as quickly as volunteers could respond.

"We were collecting people downtown and simultaneously receiving requests to go elsewhere to pick up someone else," Anne explained. "There were needs for lifts to work, to hospital appointments, and even urgent requests for food for individuals with dietary restrictions, like coeliac disease, who had no provisions at home."

Ciara, another community worker, recounted responding to a distress call from four Sudanese women who feared their home would be attacked. "I tried to reassure them, but the language barrier was significant. It was a leap of faith for them. I was running on adrenaline, focused solely on their safety. I imagined their fear, not knowing where they were being taken or if they could understand me."

Carolyn, a community worker with 35 years of experience, undertook a monumental effort. She opened her home, located 60 miles from Belfast, and, with the assistance of a coach driver and their vehicle, transported 22 individuals out of the city to her property in County Antrim. They remained there for a week.

"They arrived near midnight in the dark. There was a lot of crying and hysteria from the children and families, disoriented and traumatized, not knowing where they were or what was happening," Carolyn recalled. Some had no change of clothes, and a mother with a baby lacked diapers and formula. "It was chaotic. To think of fleeing your home with nothing, trying to protect yourself and your children."

English Translation:

While social media posts were circulating organizing the riots, something else was happening online. A network of groups normally helping migrant communities with things like food banks and interpreter support got together on WhatsApp. They helped more than 200 people, often rushing into areas of violence to take those targeted to safety. Anne works for one of the groups and described messages as 'coming in as fast as people could pick them up'. '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.'

Ciara, another community worker, responded to a call from four Sudanese women fearing that their home would be targeted. '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'.

Then there was Carolyn, a community worker of 35 years' experience. Her effort was gargantuan. She has a large home 60 miles away from Belfast and, with the help of a coach driver and his vehicle, managed to take 22 people out of the city to her house in County Antrim, where they stayed for a week. '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.' Some of them, she recalled, didn't have a change of clothes. A mum with a baby didn't have nappies or formula. 'It was crazy. To think of how you would just flee your home, not able to take anything with you and try and protect you and your kids.'