PSNI says Joe Brolly committed no crime when he said that 'Ulster Scots Protestants relish genocide'

Mr Brolly had been reported to police by the DUP MLA Keith Buchanan, and the PSNI has now concluded that "no offences were detected".

Following the October 7 killing spree in Israel by Hamas, and the subsequent siege of Gaza, Mr Brolly has been a prolific commentator on social media.

At about 10am on Sunday October 29, amid an escalating death toll in Gaza and in response to a tweet from a loyalist about Hamas siphoning off civilian aid, Mr Brolly tweeted:

"Why do Ulster Scot Protestants support genocide? The mass murder of men, women and children?

"Why do they champion it with such relish - crush, erase, eradicate, destroy? 8,000 murdered already. How many dead kids is enough? 10,000? 100,000? 500,000?"

Asked by the News Letter to elaborate on his comments, Mr Brolly said: "I was remarking on the fact that the DUP uniformly, Glasgow Rangers, the unionist trolls that berate me on Twitter etc appear to back Israel’s absolute right to do whatever it wants to do…

"The atrocities committed by Hamas in Israel and the atrocities committed by Israel in Gaza are not a game.

"Precious human lives are being destroyed. We know from our grim experience that the only way to resolve this is an honest peace process. Not taking sides."

DUP MLA for Mid Ulster Mr Buchanan then said: "I am an 'Ulster Scots Protestant', and along with tens of thousands of other Protestants in Northern Ireland, I do not support genocide of any nature.

"Whatever the rights or wrongs in the Middle East, people in Northern Ireland should be more circumspect with their words and step back from baseless sweeping generalisations.

"Just what is the purpose of branding an entire religious identity in Northern Ireland in such a grotesque manner?

"There are lots of identity groupings in Northern Ireland. "People can be grouped by faith, colour and community background, but would Joe Brolly have made such a sweeping statement about any other group?

"What happened on 7 October in the Hamas terrorist attack was an outrageous hate-fuelled murder frenzy by terrorists who not only hate Israel but hate the Jewish people.

"It should be our goal to remove any semblance of hatred from society.”

Mr Buchanan's remarks were put to Mr Brolly via WhatsApp last week.

WhatsApp registered them as "read" at 4.33pm on Friday, but no response had been received at time of writing, and a subsequent message could not be delivered (which can happen if someone has blocked you).

When the PSNI were asked about the "Protestants-backing-genocide" comments, they said: "Police received a report of offensive comments made on social media on Tuesday 31st October [this is the date of the report, not the comments].

"This was investigated as a hate incident, however no offences were detected."