Meetings at City Hall had to be rescheduled due to the violence in mid-June
The chamber at the full Belfast City Council meeting
We’re only a third of the way through summer 2026, and already Belfast has seen some of its most darkly momentous events since the post Troubles era. And just as everyone across the city was in some way affected by the violence in the middle of the month, so was business at City Hall.
There were cancellations of meetings, rescheduling of business and events, and shockingly, threats made against the Lord Mayor Róis-Máire Donnelly.
But business was attended to, and the city bounced back. The council is currently winding down, with only one meeting, a special Licensing Committee for the Fleadh, on the calendar for the whole month of July.
Here is your latest round up of Belfast Council matters so far this summer:
Shankill left out of ‘Brand Belfast’ claims councillor
A DUP councillor said at the start of the summer, at the full council meeting on June 1, that the Greater Shankill area is being left out of “Brand Belfast” when it comes to tourism in the city and is not receiving the funding it should.
DUP Councillor Ian McLaughlin, representing the Court district electoral area, failed in an appeal for a tourism grant worth £50,000 for the Shankill at City Hall.
Councillor McLaughlin made the proposal in regards to the council’s Neighbourhood Tourism Programme, a strategic initiative aimed at spreading the economic, social, and cultural benefits of the visitor economy beyond the city centre into local neighbourhoods. It is part of the council’s “Make Yourself at Home” 10-year tourism plan.
Spate of new care home approvals in Belfast vital for “chronic shortage” planners say
June was a big month for the Belfast City Council Planning Committee, where four major applications were approved relating to care homes and assisted living quarters for the elderly – three of those pertaining to East Belfast, one at the old Netherleigh House, two at Stormont Hotel, and one at Halifax House, the Gasworks, South Belfast.
The spate of newly approved Belfast care homes were “vital” to address an ageing population across the city, particularly in East Belfast, planners explained at City Hall.
One of the planners involved with Netherleigh House said there “was a chronic shortage” of beds for “an ageing population,” and said the city is already 820 beds short for those elderly members of the public in need.
Two more hotels approved for Belfast City Centre – one without windows in its rooms
Also at Planning, two more new hotels were approved for Belfast city centre, despite questions being raised over one of the proposed hotels not having windows in some of its bedrooms.
The first was at the five storey Lindsay House, on Callender Street, behind Marks and Spencer. It involves the change of use from a fast food unit, restaurant, retail and office to a 76 bedroom hotel with associated restaurant and bar areas, as well as a lobby and reception area. Elected representatives heard from officials that there would be 12 bedrooms on the first and second floor which would “have no access to windows.”
The second was a new 30 bed hotel at 20 Rosemary Street, off Royal Avenue. Works will involve the retention, conversion, refurbishment and change of use of the existing office building and two vacant retail units, including the extension of the fifth floor.
Irish signs to be put up in unionist parts of Belfast streets after U-turn
The dual language street sign debate shows no sign of losing its intensity, and the most recent saga lasted for weeks, from June to the start of July, focusing on two “long roads” in North Belfast. The council saw a June committee decision flipped at the full council on July 1st, on the strength of Green Party votes.
The People and Communities Committee decision to place Irish/English street signs only at nationalist parts of Donegall Park Avenue and Oldpark Road was reversed, as the Green Party became kingmakers in the full chamber. Both streets will now have dual language English and Irish street signage along their full lengths. Both passed the required 15 percent occupier threshold for dual language signage to be erected.
Dual language street sign policy on so-called “long roads” at City Hall gives councillors discretionary powers on whether they should receive dual language signage along the full lengths of those streets, or at sections where it would be deemed “appropriate.” Donegall Park Avenue and Oldpark Road are both seen as roads with clearly demarcated nationalist and unionist areas.
Green party Councillor Áine Groogan said: “I think it is incredibly problematic to say that the Irish language is okay in certain parts of a street, but not okay elsewhere. It creates an incredibly dangerous precedent.”
Unionist parties stay silent at City Hall as violence condemned
The three unionist parties remained silent on the subject of the riots last month in Belfast, as other parties condemned the violence at the first full meeting of Belfast Council at City Hall since the disorder.
At the July monthly meeting of the full council, held on Wednesday evening, the majority of parties lined up to condemn the violence, as well as give support to the Lord Mayor Róis-Máire Donnelly, who received a death threat during the period. None of the unionist parties, the DUP, UUP or TUV made any remarks during the council’s public session on the violence or the death threat.
Last month saw a series of coordinated anti-immigration riots and targeted attacks against ethnic minorities between June 9 and 11 in Belfast and beyond. Some human rights groups, politicians, trade unions and others have referred to the events as “pogroms” because they involved organized mobs systematically attempting to force immigrants and non-whites out of their homes. NHS staff were also subjected to racist abuse.
Around 200 adults and children fled their homes across Belfast during the arson attacks. By June 15, the Northern Ireland Housing Executive had received inquiries from 86 households citing civil unrest, with 26 of those families making requests for temporary emergency accommodation.
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