{"id":542691,"date":"2026-06-19T01:57:31","date_gmt":"2026-06-19T01:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/542691\/"},"modified":"2026-06-19T01:57:31","modified_gmt":"2026-06-19T01:57:31","slug":"utterly-depressing-south-belfast-bonfire-organisers-sell-asbestos-bonfire-badges-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/542691\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Utterly depressing\u2019 – South Belfast bonfire organisers sell \u2018asbestos bonfire\u2019 badges \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The builders of a controversial south Belfast bonfire have begun selling \u201casbestos bonfire\u201d branded badges, prompting accusations of gross irresponsibility from the environment minister.<\/p>\n

The Village Bonfire South Belfast<\/a> committee announced the merchandise on social media, saying: \u201cSince some people can\u2019t stop talking about the \u2018asbestos bonfire\u2019, we thought we\u2019d give them something else to talk about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The badges, which have been branded \u201cutterly depressing\u201d, have been put on sale as the controversy over holding a bonfire at the Meridi Street site which is home to asbestos-containing material.<\/p>\n

Fragments of asbestos remain at a south Belfast bonfire site despite remediation work, with the Northern Ireland Environment Agency warning the public to stay off the land for health reasons.<\/p>\n

\"Inside<\/a>\"Teenagers<\/a><\/p>\n

Despite this, more than 1,000 pallets have already been stacked at the site also sits adjacent to an electricity substation providing power to the Royal Victoria Hospital and Belfast City Hospital.<\/p>\n

Environment minister Andrew Muir<\/a> said the sale of the merchandise was \u201cgrossly irresponsible\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would again encourage local elected representatives to prioritise public safety and provide the leadership needed to ensure everyone obeys the law and heeds the warnings issued to keep people safe and off the site,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

SDLP<\/a> councillor S\u00e9amas de Faoite described the move as \u201cutterly depressing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis isn\u2019t something to make mirth or light of. The potential risk is still there, and the place that we\u2019ve always come at this from is to say this is about trying to tackle the issue of the risk that\u2019s posed to people who are going to be on the site and people nearby.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo turn it into something different than that is depressing.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AA fenced-off area warning of asbestos close to Broadway industrial estate off Donegall Road <\/p>\n

The asbestos found at the Meridi Street site was first reported to the Northern Ireland Environment Agency in 2010. <\/p>\n

Enforcement notices were served on the landowner the following year, but the material was never fully removed.<\/p>\n

Loyalist campaigner Jamie Bryson was granted High Court permission in recent days to intervene in a separate judicial review taken by a local resident against the PSNI and DAERA, alleging failures to prevent the bonfire being built. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The builders of a controversial south Belfast bonfire have begun selling \u201casbestos bonfire\u201d branded badges, prompting accusations of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":542692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[232791,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,31780,7,8,70219,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-542691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-andrew-muir","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-sdlp","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-village","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116774295852074288","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/542692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}