Derry is better than this.
Anybody else actually glad the cops took the pallets?
And before the “two-tier policing” excuse gets rolled out, wise up. We don't have to defend something just because loyalists do it too. Let loyalists answer for loyalist bonfires; that doesn't mean we have to support our own wee hoods by default.
Burning massive bonfires covered in flags, wrecking roads that the whole community has to use and leaving everyone else to deal with the mess isn't culture or republicanism. It's chav mentality dressed up as something deeper.
Derry is better than this.
You don't see this carry-on being accepted in Galliagh, Shantallow, Ballymac or plenty of other nationalist areas anymore, so why should the Bogside and Creggan be treated differently?
And here's another question — where did all the extra pallets come from? If pallets were removed beforehand, how did they suddenly manage to get their hands on enough replacements to build the bonfires anyway? Somebody supplied them. I'd genuinely like to know where they came from.
If we're going to criticise loyalist communities for bonfires, flags, hatred and damage, then we can't suddenly make excuses when it happens on our own doorstep. That's not “two-tier policing” — that's having the same standards for everybody.
The Bog and Creggan need to catch themselves on. Stop burning the roads we drive on, stop giving a handful of wee hoods control of the community, and find something better to put our energy into.
We can celebrate our identity without copying the worst parts of somebody else's.