Name of murdered police officer displayed on republican bonfire

Flags and banners are hung on a large bonfire being built to mark the Catholic Feast of the Assumption in the Bogside area of Derry. Picture: Liam McBurney/PA

A poppy wreath and a banner carrying the name of a murdered police officer were among items placed on a contentious republican bonfire ahead of it being lit.

The name of constable Ronan Kerr, who was murdered by dissident republicans in Omagh in 2011, was clearly visible on the side of the pyre in the Bogside area of Derry on Sunday evening.

Another threatening placard on the bonfire named current Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Simon Byrne.

The bonfire has been built in the Bogside area of Londonderry (Liam McBurney/PA)

Union flags, Israeli flags and British military insignia, including that of the Parachute Regiment, were also tied to the fire ahead of its scheduled lighting late on Sunday night.

Members of the Parachute Regiment were responsible for shooting dead 13 civil rights demonstrators on Bloody Sunday in Derry in 1972

Bonfires are traditionally lit in nationalist areas of Derry on August 15 to mark the Catholic Feast of the Assumption.

The fires are also associated with the August anniversary of the introduction of internment without trial during the Troubles and this year the bonfire building happened on the same weekend that unionists and loyalists participated in the annual Apprentice Boys Relief of Derry commemorations.

Republican and loyalist bonfires continue to be a source of controversy in Northern Ireland.

Bonfire builders from both communities have provoked anger in the past by burning symbols associated with the other’s culture on their fires.