In Northern Ireland, the Eleventh Night or 11th Night refers to the night before the Twelfth of July, an Ulster Protestant celebration. On this night, large towering bonfires are lit in Protestant loyalist neighbourhoods and are often accompanied by street parties and loyalist marching bands. The bonfires are mostly made of wooden pallets and tyres. They originally celebrated the Williamite conquest of the 1690s, which began the Protestant Ascendancy in Ireland. The event is regularly condemned for displays of sectarian or ethnic hatred against Irish Catholics and Irish nationalists, such as the burning of the Irish tricolour, and for the damage and pollution caused. Some bonfire events are controlled by loyalist paramilitaries, and authorities may be wary of intervening due to the threat of violence. There have been attempts to make some bonfires more family-friendly and environmentally-friendly. It is also known as "bonfire night". In 2021, there were about 250 Eleventh Night bonfires.