Overview

• The one-band, 50-member return parade passed through the Ardoyne interface under hymn-only rules and encountered no protests or disruptions.
• PSNI deployed over 4,000 officers on July 12 and 1,200 on the preceding bonfire nights, and officials expect this year’s policing bill to exceed last year’s £6.1 million.
• Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service crews handled 72 bonfire-related incidents and 277 emergency calls between the nights of July 11 and 12, a 154 percent rise, and one firefighter was assaulted.
• About 300 bonfires lit across loyalist neighbourhoods featured controversial effigies of migrants, Irish flags and band posters, and one pyre stood on an asbestos-contaminated site near a Belfast substation.
• Unionist leaders including Gavin Robinson, Emma Little-Pengelly and Harold Henning urged mutual respect during commemorations and called for closer collaboration among pro-union parties.