It is a shame that sectarian hate is being “paraded as culture” in parts of Northern Ireland, Ciara Kelly has said.

The Newstalk Breakfast presenter was speaking after Irish flags and an image of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar were burned at a loyalist bonfire in County Tyrone over the weekend.

The bonfire in Moygashel featured a boat on top of a pyre with the words ‘Good Friday Agreement; That ship has sailed’ printed across it.

A mock copy of the agreement with the words “null and void” printed over it was also burned.

People watch as a pyre with Irish flags and a picture of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is burned in County Tyrone, 08-07-2023. Image: PA Images/Alamy

On Newstalk Breakfast this morning, Ireland’s former Ambassador to the UK, Dan Mulhall argued that Irish people should respond to intolerance of the bonfires with tolerance.

He noted that this time of year used to be marked with serious violence in the North, and noted that if bonfires and effigies are the worst thing that happens, “I think I can live with it”.

Ciara said she tends to agree with him.

“I think Dan is probably right,” she said. “It is like a Christian thing isn’t it; it’s like turn the other cheek.

“But I also think it is a really easy thing for us to say from here. I think it is really easy to sit in Dublin and say, ‘Oh let’s meet intolerance with tolerance, let us not overreact to such provocation and all of that stuff.”

People watch as a pyre with Irish flags and a picture of Taoiseach Leo Varadkar is burned in County Tyrone, 08-07-2023. Image: Niall Carson/PA Wire

Ciara noted that it is very difficult for people living outside the North to fully understand what it is like living there – and they should tread carefully as a result.

“I do think it is a shame that sectarian hate is being, sort of, paraded as culture,” she said.

“I think that is a shame and I think it does happen during marching season and I think that is shame.

“But I think it is, as I say, very easy for us to be magnanimous about what happens with these things down in the South where we're not affected by it.”

Fellow presenter Shane Coleman questioned whether we would be asked to accept the fires if people were burning the flags of other nations.

He asked whether sectarian hatred should be tolerated on any level.

“I have friends from the North who ask this question – would we tolerate flags being burned if for example, it was an Israeli flag. Would we tolerate that?” he asked.

“Do you turn the other cheek from sectarian hatred?”