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Investigates Investigates Money Diaries Daft.ie Property Magazine Allianz Home Magazine The 42 Sports Magazine The Journal TV Climate Crisis Cost of Living Road Safety Newsletters Temperature Check Inside the Newsroom The Journal Investigates The Explainer A deep dive into one big news story Sport meets news, current affairs, society & pop culture have your say Or create a free account to join the discussion Advertisement More Stories A protester stokes a barricade fire in Ballymena on Wednesday nightAlamy Stock Photo The Morning Lead 'Remove the rats': How online rumours and threats sparked a week of anti-immigrant riots in NI A wave of racist attacks swept Northern Ireland after an incident in Ballymena. 12.06am, 14 Jun 2025 Share options THIS WEEK, ANTI-immigrant disorder spread across Northern Ireland after online speculation about multiple rapes in Ballymena inspired a wave of violence in the region. Initial disturbances in the mid-Antrim town emboldened rioters in Belfast, Larne, Coleraine, Lisburn, Carrickfergus, Newtownabbey and Portadown, scenes which Justice Minister Naomi Long described as a “festival of hate and destruction”. Several people were arrested; dozens of PSNI officers were injured; immigrants fled and were burned from their homes; vehicles were torched; police fired baton rounds; a leisure centre was targeted while unsuspecting women took part in a midweek yoga class. The rampage was sparked on Monday after a peaceful protest over the alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl in Ballymena and the appearance of two Romanian-speaking boys in court. After thousands of people gathered in the town to demonstrate about women’s safety, their concerns were weaponised by a smaller, more violent group who used the protest as an excuse to take aim at the wider immigrant population. The involvement of foreign suspects in the case enabled a wider narrative to take hold that Northern Ireland was becoming unsafe because of immigration, though similar cases involving people from the North have never provoked the same response. The rioters were fuelled by a potent combination of inflammatory rhetoric and misinformation that had smouldered on social media for two days beforehand. In the lead up to the violence, a frenzy of comments appeared on social media that dehumanised immigrants and encouraged people to engage in racist attacks. An online ‘paper’ trail shows how a wave of speculation fed what some have called a “pogrom”, and how anti-immigrant groups and inauthentic accounts are still stoking the flames almost a week later. ‘Nobody says fuck all’ Not much is known about the incident that incited several days of disorder. The PSNI say that on the evening of Saturday 7 June, a teenage girl was allegedly violently sexually assaulted at Clonavon Terrace in Ballymena, a narrow row of houses that is situated a short distance from the Braid River. The assault is alleged to have occurred some time between 7.30pm and 10.30pm, around the time that a parade comprising dozens of Loyalist pipe bands was marching through the predominantly Protestant town. Two 14-year-old boys were arrested the following day and appeared in court on Monday 8 June, charged with attempted oral rape. The BBC reports that they spoke in court via a Romanian interpreter and that they deny the charges. Between the time of the alleged assault and the arrests on Sunday, online commentary had swirled so much that the PSNI asked people “not to speculate or circulate information on social media”. A police van on ClonavonAlamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo One of the first people of those to have done so was Maurice Thomas McDowell, who runs a window and door repair business based in Crumlin, Co Antrim. At around 3pm that afternoon, McDowell discussed the incident on his TikTok account, where he regularly posts about culture war issues and immigration between videos about his work (his company’s name and a link to its website feature on his profile). Rumours about what had happened in Ballymena had been circulating all morning, but nothing had been confirmed at that stage. McDowell told his 17,000 followers about what he believed had occurred. “There’s fuckin’ boat loads and boat loads and boat loads coming into the country, but nobody says fuck all,” he said. “But then what happens last night in Ballymena? A 13-year-old girl is sexually assaulted [...] Ballymena’s not safe for women, folks. It’s time you don’t even let your kids out… if you live in Northern Ireland, your kids can’t go out any more.” McDowell re-posted the same video to his Facebook page, then posted another video about the case to TikTok; internal analytics from Meta and TikTok show that all three videos have been viewed more than 200,000 times to date. An unrelated, anonymous account on X also re-shared the video posted to Facebook a number of hours later, alongside a caption that urged people to listen to McDowell talking about ‘a rape by foreigners’ in Ballymena. To add fuel the claims, McDowell’s TikTok video was overlain with a caption claiming that two girls in the town had been “graped” – a deliberate misspelling that is often used to avoid the discussion of rape being detected by TikTok filters – in as many weeks. In a previous video posted on 31 May, he had claimed that immigrants raped a teenager in Ballymena on 30 May and that people needed to “stand up and move these fuckers on”. There are no confirmed reports of a rape on that date; a spokesperson for the PSNI confirmed to The Journal that police are probing the sexual assault of a teenage girl in the town on 24 May, but no suspects have yet been identified or charged. The Journal also contacted McDowell via the website of his business and asked him why he made the claim, and why he speculated about last weekend’s incident when PSNI had asked people not to do so; no response was received by the time of publication. The claim that there had been two rapes by immigrants in the town in as many weeks gained much traction as tensions rose over the next 36 hours. ‘Time there was a good clean out’ At 5pm on Sunday, a short time after McDowell had posted the second of his videos to TikTok, local news website Love Ballymena broke the news that two teenage boys had been arrested in connection with the rape investigation. The report did not mention the nationality of the suspects, but after Love Ballymena shared the story to its Facebook page, there was an explosion of anti-immigrant rhetoric among individuals who re-posted it to their personal profiles. Over the course of Sunday evening, some of those who did so described the alleged perpetrators as “vermin”, “rats”, and “unwanted scum”. Paul Dunlop, a DUP councillor for Antrim Town, shared the post with a sarcastic comment: “Let’s hear the ‘welcome to Northern Ireland’ immigrant cheerleaders now”. The commentary beneath the original post was even more vicious. There, some people directly pointed the finger at the Roma community, calling the town “Rommena” (a portmanteau of Romania and Ballymena) with one person claiming that certain places were “a no-go area now if you’re not a Roma or Bulgarian”. Several people called for violence, commenting things like “Time there was a good clean out”, “[It's] about time the town was cleansed”, “Remove the rats” and “Time to take our town back”. Advertisement Damaged property at Clonavon Terrace, Ballymena following initial rioting on Monday nightAlamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Some of the conversation also took aim at landlords and local councils in Northern Ireland, blaming them for housing immigrants in areas like Ballymena. The narrative is similar to the anti-immigrant movement’s targeting of international protection accommodation south of the border, where dozens of protests have taken place against the use of hotels and other buildings to house asylum seekers. However, unlike in the Republic, some of those in the North have blamed individual landlords and housing associations for an influx of immigrants to their area. Official statistics show that Northern Ireland has low levels of immigration: the 2021 census recorded that around 6% of the population there was born outside the United Kingdom or Ireland and that almost 97% of people described their ethnicity as white. Speculation and hateful rhetoric about migrants was not limited to Facebook and TikTok; on X, the story was soon shared by anonymous, anti-immigrant accounts that show signs of inauthentic activity. One of those was @FSchomberg92906, an account which claims to belong to “Fred” who describes themselves as an “independent, non-woke British journalist” that regularly posts far-right and anti-immigrant content. Its name and handle seem to be a reference to Frederick Herman de Schomberg, a noble who fought alongside William of Orange during the Battle of the Boyne; the ‘journalist’ has no online trace outside of X and the account’s profile picture appears to have been generated by artificial intelligence. In a post shortly before 7pm on Sunday, the account re-shared another since-deleted post on Facebook and claimed that a girl had been “severely sexually assaulted by 3 Foreign National’s [sic]“, and said “these bastards must be stopped entering the UK now”. The post tagged the English far-right activist Tommy Robinson in an apparent attempt to gain traction; although Robinson did not re-share it, the post was re-shared by almost 50 other accounts and has been viewed more than 20,000 times to date. ‘Immigrant tensions’ At 7.46pm, the PSNI issued a press release confirming that officers in the Mid and East Antrim area had made two arrests as part of an investigation into a “serious sexual assault on a teenage girl in Ballymena”. “Specialist officers are continuing to support the girl who has been left extremely distressed and traumatised by what has happened,” the release said. “We would reiterate to the public not to speculate or share information on social media – this is not helpful towards the ongoing investigation.” Analytics from both Facebook and X show that posts featuring this announcement – and the accompanying request for people not to speculate – were seen on both platforms by about 10% as many people as those which mentioned the case from earlier on Sunday. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo At 9.51pm, a woman shared a statement to Facebook from the father of the girl who reported that she was sexually assaulted, calling for people to attend a peaceful protest in Ballymena at 7.30pm on Monday evening. “I’m aware that not all people with different ethnicity are rapist or peados [sic], there is a place for these people in communities to come forward and stand up to these scum in the community,” the message said. “We don’t want everyone getting blamed for this type of action.” The post was widely re-shared on Facebook and WhatsApp, and quickly attracted hateful rhetoric towards immigrants, including posts saying “get them all sent home” and “they have to go”. But commentary about immigrants was not limited to private citizens on social media. Around 40 minutes later, Jim Allister, the Traditional Unionist Voice leader and the party’s MP for North Antrim, posted a statement about the case to 34,000 followers on his public Facebook page. Allister urged those commenting on social media to be careful “not to prejudice the judicial process”, but also referenced “immigrant tensions” in Ballymena. The post also contained a comment from the party’s MLA Timothy Gaston, who cited “concerns over immigration in Ballymena” and called for more policing where the attack is alleged to have occurred to “reassure the public that this area of the town is safe”. At 10.52pm, the PSNI announced that two teenage boys had been charged with attempted rape and would appear at Coleraine Magistrates’ Court the following day. ‘Two Romanian teenagers appear in court’ An overnight lull in online commentary broke early on Monday morning, when Lorna Smyth – a former TUV election candidate who is originally from Ballymena – shared a lengthy post on Facebook at 6.49am. Much of her post focused on a call to make the streets of Ballymena and Northern Ireland more safe for women, though it also leaned into much of the speculation and rhetoric that had gained traction the previous day. Like McDowell, Smyth incorrectly claimed that a 13-year-old girl had been “brutally attacked and raped … in broad daylight” the previous weekend and said it was “heartbreaking” that young girls could no longer walk through the town without fear. She also suggested, without evidence, that those responsible for the alleged attacks were “undocumented individuals”, a term frequently used by anti-immigrant groups. The phrase is a shorthand smear that paints asylum seekers and immigrants as dangerous (by implying that their background can’t be verified without documents) and dishonest (by implying that they are attempting to game the system by covering up their origin and hence their eligibility to work or for refugee status). “We cannot continue to ignore the fact that the morals, principles, and values of some of these individuals are misaligned with our own, resulting in our communities, women, and girls bearing the brunt of these consequences,” Smyth added, leaning into another anti-immigrant trope that suggests foreign nationals cannot mix in host countries. The post was shared hundreds of times on Facebook, where it has been viewed almost 20,000 times and attracted a further slew of anti-immigrant comments. A burnt-out overturned car on the street after the second night of violence in Ballymena this weekAlamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Later that morning, the two suspects appeared in Coleraine Magistrates’ Court and spoke via a Romanian interpreter. News of their appearance was first shared at 11.42am by a Facebook page called ‘Inside the courtroom NI’, which is operated by freelance court reporter Paul Higgins, in a post headlined “Two Romanian teenagers appear in court charged with attempted rape”. Dozens of subsequent comments called for the suspects and their family to be deported, while several others referred to them as rats and “vermin”; one person posted a comment that contained only 13 fire emojis and a thumbs up emoji. The Belfast Telegraph also shared a link its court report on Facebook at 11.43am, though it did not allow people to directly comment beneath the post. However, it could not limit who shared its original post, which was widely re-shared – including by a number of anti-immigrant pages based south of the border, including ‘Ireland Says No’ and ‘Coolock Says No’ after rioting broke out later that night. ‘The problems around immigration and illegal immigration’ As online commentary about the case gathered following the court appearance, DUP MLA for North Antrim Paul Frew became the latest politician to remark upon the case when he raised it on the floor of Stormont during Members’ Statements at 12.10pm. Related Reads I went to talk to people in Ballymena, and was told to make myself 'scarce' or there'd be trouble ‘Racist thuggery’: How a peaceful vigil in Ballymena turned into anti-immigration violence Like Smyth, Frew leaned into anti-immigrant rhetoric by accusing the UK government of failing to “secure our borders” and suggested that those in north Antrim and Ballymena were “living in fear” as a result. “There’s absolutely no sign of them reversing the situation and fixing the problems around immigration and illegal immigration,” he told his fellow MLAs before referencing the sexual assault case, though there is no evidence that the suspects are illegal immigrants. Videos of Frew’s speech were later posted to his personal social account and on the DUP’s accounts; analytics from Meta and X show they have been cumulatively viewed more than 60,000 times. While Frew was speaking at 12.12pm, an anonymous account on X called Real News Éire – which regularly posts anti-immigrant and far-right content about Ireland – shared a screenshot of an RTÉ report about two suspects being charged. The post was captioned: “Two Romanian teens have been charged with attempted rape. Open borders are putting women and children in danger.” The post was widely shared throughout Monday afternoon, including by dozens of anonymous accounts that regularly post about immigration in Ireland but which show signs of inauthentic activity. A number of people who commented beneath the post on X claimed that the suspects were Roma gypsies, despite there being no evidence that this is the case. Riot police on the streets of Ballymena earlier this weekAlamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo Vigil turns to violence That evening, thousands of people gathered at a location known as Ken’s car park at Larne Street in Ballymena, a few hundred metres away from where the attack is alleged to have taken place. Footage of the protest seen by The Journal shows that several people, including young children, held hand-made signs that said “Roma rapists out”. The crowd marched south-east along Larne Street and via Larne Road, before turning south-west along Wakehurst Road and then back north towards the Braid River via Queen Street. When the march reached a junction near the point at which the crowds had first gathered, it stopped and the father of the alleged victim briefly addressed the crowd. Among those in attendance was Ballymena deputy mayor Tyler Hoey, a DUP councillor who was interviewed by Freedom Dad, a Northern Irish YouTuber who describes himself as a citizen journalist. Hoey was measured during the short interview, but called on the Westminster government to “end illegal immigration” so that girls and women in Ballymena could “feel more comfortable”, despite there being no indication that illegal immigrants were responsible for sexual assaults in the town. When Hoey was interviewed by a BBC journalist, some people in the crowd shouted “BBC are not welcome here” (The Journal received a similar reaction from some locals when reporting from Ballymena two days later). After the main demonstration ended, a small crowd gathered and marched across the river towards Clonavon Terrace, where the assault is alleged to have happened. Shortly before 9pm, masked men and youths began to attack police and houses in the area. Even as the violence was kicking off, those in the crowd were repeating misinformation, including accusations that police would not use dogs against Muslims in the UK and that the Rotherham sex abuse scandal was covered up by authorities. Coverage of the violence soon began to blow up on social media, much of it from anti-immigrant accounts in Ireland and further afield. Several posts repeated the claim that Roma gypsies were responsible for the alleged assault, with one person noting that Ballymena has a “large Roma gypsy population” (Census 2021 data recorded 706 Roma out of a total population of 24,301 people living in the town). One widely shared TikTok video that has been viewed tens of thousands of times showed a barricade in flames, with a caption incorrectly claiming that a “granny and child” had been raped. From around 9.30pm, English far-right leader Tommy Robinson sent a series of posts about the disorder on X, accusing immigrants of carrying out multiple rapes in the town, which have been collectively viewed more than a million times to date. Inauthentic accounts on X also swarmed to amplify coverage of the riots and anti-immigrant sentiment, re-posting footage of buildings being burned and claims about who was responsible in posts that clocked up millions of views. ‘A week of shame’ The pattern continued over the next few days as anti-immigrant talking points, misinformation and footage of the riots continued to be shared across social media. In the days afterwards, immigrants of various nationalities were targeted or felt they had to protect themselves from angry mobs. A Ukrainian woman was abused by a passing motorist while being interviewed by RTÉ; a Bulgarian woman told BBC how she fled her home after it was attacked; a Polish man who spoke to The Guardian said the windows were smashed in his family’s house; a Filipino family posted stickers on their window to avoid being targeted. The Northern Ireland Housing Executive reported on Friday that around 50 households had received assistance across the week, and 14 families had been provided with emergency accommodation, on foot of reports of homes being targeted. Last night in Ballymena, “Filipino lives here” stickers were posted to doors and windows. Today, a new poster emerges, “Locals live here”. pic.twitter.com/LIH2qLho8M— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) June 11, 2025 Politicians across Northern Ireland have widely condemned the violence and Police Federation chairman Liam Kelly said it has been “a week of shame with appalling levels of unrest in towns and cities”. PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has also said that the young girl who was the victim of the alleged sexual assault in Ballymena has been “further traumatised” by the rioting. Aside from hateful rhetoric and the amplification of violence, social media has played a part in other ways in the days since the initial rumours swirled. On Facebook, a public group with more than 5,000 followers called the Ballymena Action Group has encouraged users to share their addresses in a bid to avoid having their houses attacked, in posts that have garnered hundreds of replies. The group was dormant since last August, but began posting again in recent days; its description specifically targets the Roma community, saying it was formed in reaction to “the zero action taken against the Roma gang masters establishing themselves in our town”. A number of posts which violated Meta rules against the sharing of identifiable information, were subsequently removed. Readers like you are keeping these stories free for everyone... A mix of advertising and supporting contributions helps keep paywalls away from valuable information like this article. Over 5,000 readers like you have already stepped up and support us with a monthly payment or a once-off donation. 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