Around 3,000 people attended an anti-racism rally in Belfast on Saturday afternoon, gathering outside City Hall in a show of solidarity after a turbulent week in the city. The demonstration was billed as Together Against Hate.
The turnout brought thousands onto the streets of the city centre, with the rally framed as a collective stand against hatred and intimidation. It offered a markedly different scene from the disorder that had gripped parts of Belfast in the preceding days.
The gathering followed days of unrest in the city. The violent demonstrations had been sparked by a knife attack earlier in the week, which set off a wave of disorder on the streets.
Northern Ireland's First Minister, Michelle O'Neill, had condemned the preceding riots in stark terms. She described them as nothing less than disgusting cowardice, underlining the strength of official disapproval of the violence.
The disorder of recent days had seen businesses targeted across Belfast. Among the premises attacked were Sudanese, Middle Eastern and Turkish establishments, with foreign-owned businesses bearing much of the brunt of the violence.
Saturday's rally outside City Hall was intended as a direct response to that violence. Participants used the event to call for calm and unity, rejecting the message that the rioters had sought to send across the city.
Coming at the end of a week in which anti-immigrant sentiment had spilled into open disorder, the Together Against Hate gathering sought to project an alternative image of Belfast, one defined by solidarity rather than by the unrest that had preceded it.