Tarred, feathered and tied to a lamppost

Tied to a lamppost, he stands with his head and upper body covered in tar and feathers. A makeshift placard hung around his neck with a piece of string announces the reason for his treatment. It is a very public humiliation, and a medieval one. Almost ten years since Northern Ireland’s Troubles officially ended, this remains the crude face of justice on the streets of south Belfast.

This man was subjected to the painful tarring and feathering on the Taughmonagh estate, a loyalist stronghold in the city. Locals had accused the victim, who is in his thirties, of being a drug dealer. And when police allegedly did not act, they took the law into their own hands. Two masked men tied up the accused victim, poured tar over his head and then covered him in white feathers, apparently from a pillow case.

Hmmmm. This could be a solution to the urban phenomenon of the “known crack house”, which everyone knows about, but which the authorities have somehow overlooked.