In Northern Ireland, Diasporic Indians Are Living In Fear After Attempted Murder

Stephen Ogilvie, a 44-year-old Belfast man deemed “vulnerable” by local authorities, suffered “catastrophic” injuries after an unprovoked, savage attack by a 30-year-old “asylum seeker” from Sudan, Hadi Alodid. Were it not for a local man bringing to bear the power of the Irish hurl, used for the ancient game of Hurling, Ireland’s national sport, Ogilvie would have been decapitated.

As it stands, Stephen has lost his left eye, is in danger of losing the right also, and suffered deep knife wounds to his face, skull, back, and neck. Alodid reportedly came to the UK from Sudan via France and the Republic of Ireland in 2023 and was granted leave to remain in the country for 3 years. That there is confusion over his route, or why he did not stay in France, the first ‘safe’ country after Sudan, is one reason why Indians in Northern Ireland are hunkering down for another potential summer of violence.

“Since this horrible thing, we all are worrying, not just Belfast people, that these refugees will try to murder someone else. We see so many of these things, Afghans, Somalis, Sudans [Sudanese], and others who commit crimes and we are put into this, this mess,” said Indra (31), an Indian migrant who teaches Yoga part-time in a Belfast Gaelic Athletic Association (GAA) clubhouse.

“Last year there was a lot of stress and worry, and the year earlier. We [people who migrate legally] are here, paying taxes, integrating, being proud of our heritage and proud to see the new country. Then these…I cannot call them refugees, sorry, but these people, they bring such negative energy,” the Delhi native explained, telling a story of how, on a recent visit to Dublin, she was accosted by Somali youths while walking from O’Connell Street [the main street of the Irish capital] to Connolly Railway Station.

Indra, who volunteers as a Yoga teacher, works full-time in a primary school, which is integrated [no religious affiliations]. A year ago this month, I wrote here about the difficulties facing Indians in Northern Ireland. How, each June, the preparation for the ‘Glorious 12th’ [the Protestant celebration of the ‘victory’ of the Dutchman who usurped the British throne at a battle in Ireland], begins in earnest. This year, there is another reason for hatred, fear, and anger to kick off on time.

The attempted murder by Alodid of a local man with learning disabilities saw unrest in Belfast, protests and reaction elsewhere on the island of Ireland. The unhappiness with, to put it mildly, misbehaviour by ‘newcomers’, began last month in Dublin. A Congolese-born career criminal, caught shoplifting and being detained by security, died in a public street. Yves Sakila (35) had been largely estranged from his family and, despite arriving legally in Ireland with them, fallen through welfare cracks and into crime, homelessness, and addiction. His death was jumped on by the usual suspects, including elected Irish politician Ruth Coppinger, who tried to draw a parallel between the man and George Floyd.

At the same time, on a Dublin street, Alex Coughlan (37), a local man, was beaten to death by two teenage boys. Coughlan suffered “traumatic” head and neck injuries before being robbed of his cash, bank cards, and a gold ring. The boys were tracked down by police after using Coughlan’s bank cards in local shops. In court earlier this month, a snippet of a video from one of the boys’ phones “showed the deceased on his knees begging for his life, before the selfie camera shows the teenager’s face.”

The road where this deadly assault took place is just off Blanchardstown’s Main Street. I went to school across the road. I grew up in this town. My mother, brother, and sister all live in this town. Locals, including Indian community leaders, came out in protest and grief.

“What I don’t get,” Dominic McCarthy, a local sports coach and father of three, told me, “is what is so wrong with this world that a man can be beaten to a pulp in a busy spot like this, and from the government, silence. I do get that the two young fellas are underage and we need to be careful. Even still, where is Coppinger [Ruth, the parliament member for the People Before Profit Party]? She’s our local rep, this is her town. I bloody gave her a vote and silence. It sickens the s..t out of me that she accused a black security guard of racism in holding down a black criminal, but now, now? One of her constituents is killed by two young immigrant kids and zero. We’re all at risk.”

Coppinger, a former school teacher, has been notoriously divisive in her rhetoric and politics. Back in 2010-11, she led the charge to shut down a local football club when there was a general election in the offing. She was then a member of the local council and worked tirelessly to have Sporting Fingal FC put out of business. Elected to the national parliament [Dáil] in 2011 as a member of the Socialist Party, she was dumped out in 2020 before returning by a whisker in 2024. Her behaviour became increasingly erratic, alienating many of her supporters and friends. She has jumped on every ‘racist’ incident in Ireland to a point where marginalised communities have openly questioned her allegiance.

A local India-origin business owner, originally from Gujarat, had choice words for her.

“Miss Coppinger came in to ask for my vote two years ago, I was most happy to agree. I have two girls. I want them to have equal access. I am an emigrant and she [Coppinger] told me that she doesn’t want to see any more Irish mammies having to say goodbye to their babies at the airport. You know, it hit me very hard. I left my family to come to the UK twenty years ago. I’m here, my life, my all. I don’t want to see my babies, my, yes, teens now, having to emigrate. Ireland is their home. I supported this view from Miss Coppinger, but every[thing] she says and does is anti-Irish and tells us we’re all racist, woman-hating.”

On the island of Ireland, discontent is not bubbling, it’s boiling. And recent revelations from the ‘mainland’ have made the plight of Indians much, much worse.

On December 3, 2025, Polish-British university student Henry Nowak was out with his football teammates at a pre-Christmas party. He left his friends to return to his dorm, but he never made it. On the way, the 18-year-old Accounting and Finance student at the University of Southampton met 23-year-old Vickrum Singh Digwa and was stabbed to death.

Digwa’s brother actually called local police after Nowak had tried to escape being murdered with a kirpan and dagger, telling them they had been the victims of a racist attack. Digwa, his brother, and mother were on the scene when police arrived and accused Nowak of attacking them. Bleeding to death, pleading with the police to help him as he couldn’t breathe, the teenager was handcuffed and died.

In May, Digwa was found guilty and sentenced to life; his brother Kaur was also found guilty and will be sentenced in July. There were protests, angry speeches, devious intervention by grifting politicians, and excuses offered by those running the country. It left Indians across the UK and Ireland exposed.

“You know, I can tell you, a local man told my husband, who is Irish, ‘You better watch her, or she’ll cut you up like the Polish boy.’ It was a joke, they’re friends of our family and we can laugh, but it’s real and just makes more problems for us.”

Last summer, a feeling of being ignored, neglected, and insulted [in their intelligence] drove genuine locals out onto the streets in protest. The protests were hijacked by people who make profit or political gain from social division. It’s not just the ‘far right’ who have most to gain, but the ‘far left’, like Miss Coppinger, who will tell the Irish and legal migrants that to voice concern is an admission of racism. A lot of Irish people are fearful of the results of this increasing division in our society, and just as many Indians who are proud to call Ireland their home are too.