The State of Ballymena episode artwork

EPISODE · Aug 14, 2025 · 43 MIN

The State of Ballymena

from The State of Us · host BBC Sounds

It's been two months since scenes of hate and violence erupted on the streets of Ballymena, County Antrim – and the fallout is still evident weeks later.Many homes remain boarded up on Clonavon Terrace, which bore the brunt of rioting described by the police as "racist thuggery".Tara Mills and Declan Harvey revisit the street, along with the MP for the area Jim Allister. The target of much of the aggression in June was the town's Roma (Gypsy) community and other foreign nationals. Some who fled say they are not coming back."Locals live here" posters, which first appeared by residents trying to protect their homes from being attacked, are still affixed to front windows on Queen Street.For some, the eight weeks since the rioting has seen a change in Ballymena – Jim Allister said there had been "an exodus of largely Roma and some other eastern Europeans"."It has transformed the feel in the area. There's no longer people standing around our street corners here," he told Tara Mills and Declan Harvey. In this episode of The State of Us, the team look at the data around all of this, in a bid to find out what is really going on in Ballymena. For organisations that offer support: www.bbc.co.uk/actionline Get in touch: [email protected]

It's been two months since scenes of hate and violence erupted on the streets of Ballymena, County Antrim – and the fallout is still evident weeks later.Many homes remain boarded up on Clonavon Terrace, which bore the brunt of rioting described by the police as "racist thuggery".Tara Mills and Declan Harvey revisit the street, along with the MP for the area Jim Allister. The target of much of the aggression in June was the town's Roma (Gypsy) community and other foreign nationals. Some who fled say they are not coming back."Locals live here" posters, which first appeared by residents trying to protect their homes from being attacked, are still affixed to front windows on Queen Street.For some, the eight weeks since the rioting has seen a change in Ballymena – Jim Allister said there had been "an exodus of largely Roma and some other eastern Europeans"."It has transformed the feel in the area. There's no longer people standing around our street corners here," he told Tara Mills and Declan Harvey. In this episode of The State of Us, the team look at the data around all of this, in a bid to find out what is really going on in Ballymena. For organisations that offer support: www.bbc.co.uk/actionline Get in touch: [email protected]

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The State of Ballymena

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This episode is 43 minutes long.

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This episode was published on August 14, 2025.

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It's been two months since scenes of hate and violence erupted on the streets of Ballymena, County Antrim – and the fallout is still evident weeks later.Many homes remain boarded up on Clonavon Terrace, which bore the brunt of rioting described by...

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