Republicans from a number of different organisations across Belfast have been mobilising and organising in response to efforts to bring racist intimidation into nationalist areas.

There have been reports of loyalists posting address details online, and families from ethnic minority backgrounds in republican areas across Belfast receiving visits from masked individuals and being told to leave the area.

Lasair Dhearg said that republicans from a number of different organisations were “on the ground” in response to the threats.

“No one will be leaving our communities as a result of these visits. Racism, and racists, will not be tolerated in our communities. There is and will be a response to any such incidents,” they said.

Prominent republican Dee Fennell has said he and others would be mobilising after the homes of minority families were targeted by racist intimidation in Ardoyne in north Belfast.

He posted on social media that he had visited the home of a “very distressed family” in the area who had “masked men at their door threatening to put them out for being black”.

Mr Fennell said local residents are “gathering round to support them with us as we speak”.

“We have reassured them that they are welcome in Ardoyne and these racist scumbags don’t represent this district,” he added.

“The contact details of local republicans have been left with them and we will be mobilising at their house should anyone arrive at their door.

“Make no mistake, local republicans will be defending this family and any others attacked like this by any means necessary.

“The good people of Ardoyne won’t allow our area’s name to be tarnished by scumbags and I’ve no doubt plenty will support us in protecting these families.

“It is the people that have traumatised these families that we don’t want. You are absolute scum.”

For many nationalists and republicans, the scenes of homes being burned out and families forced to flee brought back memories of 1969, when loyalist petrol-bombers left over 1,500 Catholic families homeless.

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald said the events had “echoes back to the pogroms on Bombay Street in 1969 when families and children were burnt out of their homes by loyalist mobs. Why? Because they were Catholic. Why? Because they were Irish.”

She also warned that those leading this violence “are the same people who will burn tricolours on the top of bonfires on the 12th of July”.

Anti-Imperialist Action Ireland urged republicans and nationalists to stay calm, keep away from loyalist paramilitary disturbances and ignore the efforts of some on social media to portray or claim nationalist involvement.

“Knife crime did not begin with the latest migrants into Ireland and has been a tactic long used by loyalist paramilitaries against the republican and nationalist communities, most notably by the Shankill Butchers,” they said.

“There is no place in Ireland for racism. It is a tool of imperialism to keep the working class divided and distracted from our real enemies. Instead of racism, republicans need to lead the fight back against all anti-community and anti-social elements no matter where they come from.”

Republican Network for Unity called for “calm, restraint, and common sense”.

They said that the “immigrants who live, work, and contribute positively within our communities are not to blame for the actions of any individual.

“Entire families and communities should not be targeted because of the alleged actions of one person. We are better than this.

“As a people, we know through our own history that violence, collective blame, and the destruction of our communities are not the way forward.

“Our communities have already suffered enough through decades of conflict, and the trauma, loss, and hardship caused by that period continue to affect many people to this day. We do not need to add to that suffering.”