A man who thwarted an alleged knife-wielding attacker in Belfast described his intervention as a “natural reaction.” He also criticized rioters and expressed that funds raised on his behalf should instead assist the victim.
Maitiu Mág Tighearnán, 32, was captured on video using a hurling stick against the assailant during a shocking assault that left Stephen Ogilvie critically injured.
In the brutal attack, Mr. Ogilvie lost his left eye and sustained severe injuries to his back, neck, face, and right eye. He remains hospitalized following the incident, which occurred around 10:30 p.m. on Monday.
Hadi Alodid, a 30-year-old Sudanese asylum seeker, has been charged with attempted murder and is currently in custody.
The incident on Kinnaird Avenue in northern Belfast has sparked two nights of anti-immigration riots, resulting in torched homes, injured police officers, and burning vehicles.
Appearing on Good Morning Britain, Mr. Tighearnán condemned the violence, stating that the rioters have “lost sight” of their protest’s purpose.
Images from the city show how hundreds of protesters, mainly men dressed in black, many with face coverings, have amassed in the streets before attacking properties, police, cars and buses.
Mr Tighearnán said: ‘Everyone is entitled to their right of opinion and their right to protest. When it turns violent, then you lose sight of the protest and what it stands for.’
Stephen Ogilvie lost an eye following the attack and suffered injuries to his back, neck and face in the attempted ‘beheading’ at around 10.30pm on Monday
Mr Ogilvie was left with significant injuries and remains in hospital, police said
Hadi Alodid, 30, from Sudan, has been charged with attempted murder and possession of a knife, as well as a separate charge of making threats to kill an NHS radiographer. He appeared at Belfast magistrates’ court on Wednesday and was remanded in custody
He added a shop near his home that has been in the same family for 20 years was ‘ruined’.
‘Amongst everything that was happening someone has seen someone of colour and then it’s led to that,’ he said.
On Wednesday night 12 police officers were injured and 16 people were arrested.
Mr Tighearnán also said that the money from a fundraiser set up in his name should go to the victim, Mr Ogilvie, rather than him.
After his heroic actions were seen by the world, a GoFundMe was launched to raise money and ‘buy him a pint’, and has so far seen £30,000 donated.
He told GMB today that the money should instead go to supporting Mr Ogilvie and his family as he recovers.
Following his interview, his proud partner Aoife O Reilly described him as ‘the man of the hour’ in a video on social media. She previously said: ‘Couldn’t be prouder of my Matt he was very brave and honestly he’s being so humble about the whole thing.
‘We love you Maitiu Mág Tighearnán. You might be everyone’s hero but you’re our world.’
Mr Tighearnán previously told the Daily Mail how it was pure chance he stumbled upon the scene on Monday night after taking a short cut to a petrol station with a friend, Andre.
The pair saw one man sitting astride the other, and assumed they were having a fight.
Mr Tighearnán said it was their ‘natural reaction’ to step in: ‘We grew up in west Belfast and a lot of people have that mentality.
‘At the end of the day is that there was a man lying there and he needed help. It was a natural reaction.
‘Most people from where we grew up would’ve done the same. Belfast at the moment gets a bad rep but the whole area is a community spirited place.’
They jumped out to separate the men, at which point Andre told Mr Tighearnán he could see a knife.
Maitiu Mág Tighearnán, 32, was seen hitting a man with a hurling stick in a viral video of the horrific assault which left Stephen Ogilvie in a critical condition in hospital
Mr Tighearnán told Good Morning Britain today that money raised in his name should go to the victim of the attack instead
Mr Tighearnán said that instinct took over: ‘I’d taken my son to hurling practice earlier that evening and so I’d got out of the car, gone to the boot and grabbed his hurling stick.
‘Instinct took over and I ran over and I smashed this guy over the head with the hurling stick. Right on the flat side, about three times. As hard as I could.’
‘Andre was a few seconds behind and he came running in and tried to subdue the attacker with an ankle-hold so he could free the victim.
‘I hit this guy again, hard, but it didn’t seem to faze him. He did stumble back, though and dropped the knife. I think another man who’d been watching came in and kicked the knife away.
‘We were trying to roll the attacker onto his stomach to subdue him but he was struggling. The police then arrived and four officers took over before armed tactical support turned up.
Mr Ogilvie’s family has been in touch with Mr Tighearnán to thank him for his brave actions, and said that the intervention of members of the public saved his life.
Alodid has been charged with attempted murder, possession of a bladed article and threats to kill, appearing at Belfast Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday.
He is believed to have arrived in the UK after travelling from France to the Republic of Ireland, and then crossing into Northern Ireland.
Authorities say he then claimed asylum and was given leave to remain for five years.
Twelve police officers were injured and 16 arrests were made in the second night of unrest in Northern Ireland following the Belfast knife attack, Hilary Benn has said.
The Northern Ireland Secretary said he was “glad to say that last night there was less disorder than we witnessed on Tuesday night”, as he condemned the “racist thuggery” seen in the wake of Monday’s stabbing assault which left the victim in hospital.
Police used water cannons on rioters, as officers were pelted with bricks and petrol bombs by balaclava-clad rioters in Co Antrim on Wednesday evening.
A Department for Infrastructure vehicle was left in flames as rioters confronted police near the Sandyknowes roundabout in Newtownabbey to the north west of Belfast.
Footage showed dozens of men dressed all in black and wearing face coverings gathering on Antrim Road, where they could be seen tearing bricks from properties and smashing paving stones with sledgehammers to create projectiles to throw at police.
Rioters attempted to set fire to a derelict property near a petrol station in Newtownabbey, with some throwing petrol bombs at police lines.
They could also be seen taking wheelie bins from outside homes and lighting fires in them.
In Londonderry, police reported items having been set alight on the Ardmore Road.
The family of the victim Stephen Ogilvie said they were “disgusted” by the disorder.
In a statement released by police yesterday, they said: “We have been left feeling disgusted by the scenes that unfolded yesterday across Northern Ireland in the wake of what happened.
‘We want to make it absolutely clear that to do this in response is not supported by our family, and peaceful protest is only ever the way forward.
‘We have many migrants who make a deeply valuable contribution to our country, including from within our healthcare system and hospitality sector, and we depend on them to make our country work.
‘We do not want this terrible tragedy to be used to divide people or fuel hostility – do not do this in the name of our loved one as we do not share the same values.’
