sinnfeinnews.com, June 24, 2005
Attempting to reassert the Orange state
Is the DUP attempting to re-assert the Orange state? To northern nationalists
the signs currently emanating from unionism and its political leadership are
sadly familiar. Even more worrying is the apparent willingness of the
British and their administration to accommodate it.
It comes as no surprise to republicans that the most reactionary elements of
unionism have rallied behind the banner of Ian Paisley's DUP. It is, of
course, their natural home. It comes as little surprise that the DUP is
attempting to use the annual mobilisation of those reactionary forces, the
Orange marching season, to assert its ascendancy within the unionist family.
The marching season began with a tactical attempt by the Orange Order to
undermine the Parades Commission. A number of parades were deemed illegal
after the documentation necessary for authorisation was deliberately
completed incorrectly.
Members of the Orange Order in East Belfast, including Grand Master Robert
Saulters, were subsequently questioned by the PSNI after one of a series of
illegal parades took place. DUP deputy leader Peter Robinson threatened
trouble if the Orange Order were challenged in East Belfast.
Ian Paisley warned British NIO Security Minister Shaun Woodward that it
would be "madness" if attempts were made to stop parades because a form had
not been filled in to the satisfaction of the Parades Commission. Some 33
parade applications had been rejected because officials had refused to enter
their names as the organiser. Under new rules organisers face legal
responsibility for parades.
The Parades Commission was accused of creating tension and over 500 people
attending an Orange Hall meeting in Ballymacarrett demanded the resignation
of the district commander of the PSNI.
The Parades Commission announced that it was prepared to be 'flexible' and
that despite the fact that the Orange Order had deliberately flouted the
rules to engineer a confrontation, the commission would make further
determinations in an effort to "ease community tensions".
It's a curious and telling statement. The row, manufactured by the Orange
Order, is about the legality or otherwise of the Orangemen's applications to
parade. It involves the Parades Commission and perhaps the PSNI. So what
possible impact does that have on 'community relations'? Unless, of course,
the Parades Commission believes unionists will seek to victimise nationalist
communities if they don't get their way.
Whatever the Orange Order is about, we can be sure it isn't about
flexibility and true to form the Parades Commission no sooner announced its
decision to back down than senior Orangemen and DUP politicians were calling
for its immediate abolition.
Launching a campaign demanding that the British Government disband the
Parades Commission, Orange Order spokesperson Reverend Mervyn Gibson said
the "climbdown" had come too late and accused the Commission of "arrogance,
ineptitude and incompetence".
"The [British] Government can no longer ignore the crass stupidity of this
quango whose decisions are polluting the atmosphere in which meaningful
progress can be made," said Gibson.
"Its tactic of punitive sanctions in an effort to force people to talk is
morally corrupt and counter-productive. We implore the Secretary of State,
Peter Hain to listen to the voices of the unionist family and disband this
hindrance to a lasting peace."
The morality of refusing to speak to nationalist residents while insisting
on parading an anti-Catholic organisation past their front doors is not
something the Order is prepared to ponder. If it did, it might just consider
its own abolition. Not that nationalists are seeking an end to the Orange
Order, just dialogue and the exercise of choice.
Meanwhile, the Orange Order was making it known that the decision to
re-route a controversial feeder Orange parade, due to take place this
Saturday, a few hundred yards away from the nationalist Springfield Road,
was also not to their liking.
Belfast Grand Master Dawson Bailie described the re-routing as
"unacceptable". Fears of unionist street violence increased after Orangemen
met in West Belfast to discuss protesting against the Parades Commission
decision to re-route them away from Workman Avenue to a newly-constructed
roadway through the old Mackies site.
Last year, the commission initially barred the Order from marching through
Workman Avenue, a gate within the peace line that remains locked at all
other times throughout the year. But the decision was overturned hours
before the parade because of a threat of unionist violence.
Thousands of Orange parades take place throughout the north every year with
only a handful of contentious parades through nationalist areas being
contested. But accommodating their nationalist neighbours isn't part of the
Orange lexicon. The Order, bringing three Shankill-based lodges, has applied
to parade through the nationalist Springfield Road twice again on July 12.
Orangemen are also "deeply angered" by the Parades Commission's decision not
to allow another feeder parade from passing Ardoyne this weekend. Last week,
the unionist Tour of the North ended in rioting in which a number of people
were injured.
North Belfast remains tense after the first major parade of the Orange
marching season descended into violence last Friday. Dozens of PSNI Land
Rovers lined the Crumlin Road hemming in nationalist residents on the
Ardoyne side while loyalist residents gathered on the other side. On the way
to their parade Orangemen use buses to travel through the nationalist
Ardoyne but insist on parading through the area on their return journey.
Missiles were thrown as bandsman from the Orange lodges passed but worse
violence erupted when the PSNI allowed a second parade of Orange supporters,
including unionist paramilitaries to pass through the nationalist area.
Many nationalist residents complained that the PSNI had been heavy-handed
and abusive. One woman standing in the front garden of her own home said a
PSNI officer had told her to "fuck off" and to "go away and shut your
fucking door". Other residents complained of being hit with riot shields.
The PNSI deployed a water cannon against local people.
Republicans worked hard to defuse the situation and prevent young people
from engaging in rioting. But it has to be said that, particularly in an
area like Ardoyne, which has suffered years of state repression and
sectarian attacks, not to mention sectarian discrimination, forcing an
anti-Catholic parade through the area without any attempt to engage that
community in dialogue is a recipe for disaster.
The Andersonstown News editorial put it more bluntly, "to clear the street
for a drunken, bigoted rabble who have travelled across the city to spit in
a community's face, and when the backs of the PSNI are turned on loyalists
and their batons are turned on nationalists, then there is going to be
trouble".
But this wasn't to be the end of the provocation.
