Last-ditch effort to save stolen flag from bonfire fails

Items placed on the bonfire on Friday morning in the Bogside included a replica crimson flag, poppies, union flags and an emblem of King Charles

A last-ditch attempt to save a flag stolen from Londonderry's Protestant cathedral from being burned on a bonfire in the city failed, an independent councillor has said.

The replica crimson flag – flown to mark the 1689 siege of Derry – was taken from St Columb's Cathedral in the run up to the bonfire in the Bogside, which was lit on Friday night.

Independent councillor Gary Donnelly said efforts to have the Apprentice Boys' flag returned had failed and he believed it was burnt on the fire.

Apprentice Boys' governor William Walker said he was "saddened" by the theft and it was "hard to believe that anyone would enter the grounds of a church to steal anything".

The flag was presented to the dean of the cathedral by the Apprentice Boys earlier this month

"Unfortunately, it is my firm belief it was burned," Gary Donnelly told BBC Radio Foyle's North West Today programme.

"It has been destroyed and I believe that is unfortunate."

The bonfire was lit in the Bogside on Friday night

The police said they were investigating the placing of materials on the bonfires, including flags and wreaths, as sectarian hate crimes and sectarian hate incidents.

They also said bottles were thrown at officers in Bishop Street and on the city walls on Friday night.

There were no reports of any injuries and no arrests.

'Deeply upsetting'

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MLA Gary Middleton said the flag was of symbolical importance to the city's unionist community.

It is flown twice annually during events relating to the city's 1689 siege, marking the Relief of Derry in August and the shutting of the city's gates in December.

"To go into a church premises and steal that is completely unacceptable," he told BBC Radio Foyle.

"To hear it has been burnt is deeply upsetting for many people across our communities."

Donnelly said some items had been handed back following mediation before the bonfires were lit but the attempt to save the replica crimson flag had come too late.

He said he believed it could have been saved if there had been "reciprocal gestures".

A US flag stolen from a Derry school in July is believed to have been removed from the bonfire

However, he said he believed a US flag, stolen from the grounds of a school built on the site of a former US naval base, had been saved.

The flag, gifted to the school by members of the former US naval communications station, was taken from Foyle College on the Limavady Road in early July.

It had been gifted to the school by members of the former US Naval Communications Station.

Donnelly said it had been secured, was in a safe place and there was now "a process under way that that will be handed back".

The names of a child who died in a drowning tragedy and a former senior detective who was shot and seriously injured, appeared on a bonfire in Creggan

The bonfires in in the Bogside and Creggan had attracted criticism from the Catholic Bishop of Derry, Donal McKeown, who said "older sinister forces" were exploiting young people to stoke up fear and anger.

First Minister Michelle O'Neill said there was no place in Northern Ireland for "illegal, unregulated bonfires" or for the burning of flags or emblems.

There was also condemnation after the names of a dead child and a former senior detective who was shot and seriously injured, appeared on a bonfire in Creggan.

Why are the bonfires lit?

Bonfires on 15 August are traditional in some nationalist parts of Northern Ireland to mark the Feast of the Assumption, a Catholic holy day.

Some bonfires are also lit in August in nationalist areas to commemorate the introduction of internment without trial during the Troubles, brought in by the UK government in 1971.