Thursday, 21 July, 2005
Analysis: Level of ignorance disturbing
By Jim Gibney for the Irish News
Is there no-one in the leadership of the Orange Order prepared to lead this organisation away from their annual carnival of sectarian reaction?
Is there no-one in the leadership of unionism prepared to tell the Orange Order times have changed and so must they?
Is there no-one in the leadership of the Protestant churches prepared to give the Orange Order the correct moral guidance or challenge their appropriation of the term Protestant?
The order is exclusively Protestant but that does not make it in faith terms intrinsically Protestant.
Are the people of the north, particularly nationalists in Belfast, to be left in a permanent state of anxiety and fear every summer because the Orange Order is living in the past?
There is a failure of leadership across unionism and Protestantism on the issue of Orange Order marches.
I listened to Dawson Bailie and Tommy Cheevers, members of the loyal orders, speaking about the decision to reroute last Saturday's parade on the Springfield Road.
Their comments reveal a disturbing level of ignorance about how the Orange Order is viewed by the nationalist/Catholic population.
Their comments also display contempt for nationalists.
Mr Bailie said the order would lose its "dignity" if it accepted the Parades Commission ruling and walked through Mackie's site.
Do Orangemen not lose their dignity when they walk through a Catholic district where they are not wanted?
What is dignified about walking past residents' homes when they are hemmed in by military force to facilitate the walkers?
Is Orange dignity enhanced by such behaviour?
Mr Cheevers talked about the "hurt" Orangemen felt as a result of being prevented from marching. What precisely is it they are hurt about?
Are they hurt because they can't get marching through a nationalist/Catholic area?
These sensitive souls who are feeling so hurt belong to an organisation which has a principle of not speaking to the people whose districts they impose themselves upon.
This refusal to speak to residents derives from an anti-Catholic superiority ethos which pervades the Orange Order.
There is nothing more disrespectful in human experience than refusing to speak to another person.
It is a calculated human insult, which the Orange Order routinely practices.
They also routinely practice intimidating isolated Catholics.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about the behaviour of loyalists in Stoneyford, a village close to Lough Neagh.
These same loyalists now donning the cloak of the Orange Order were planning a merry dance through every nook and cranny of Stoneyford on July 11.
Their march, which used to be up and down the main street, now includes walking the streets of the new housing developments attached to the main street.
This carefully-worked tour ensures every Catholic household has an Orangeman on their doorstep and a Lambeg drum in their window.
And just in case the Catholics were out for the day to miss this coat-trailing exercise, the march takes place at 7.30pm at night.
How hurtful and spiteful do you think this is, Mr Cheevers?
Catholics and nationalists want nothing to do with the Orange Order in its current form.
This institution was established to foment sectarian division and they have done an effective job.
They were one of the three pillars of the northern state. The other two were the Unionist Party and the RUC.
They were the actual and hidden government of the north.
All members of the unionist government including the prime minister, were members of the Orange Order.
The 'B' Specials, the RUC, all levels of local administration and the civil service were replete with them.
Today the Orange Order does not have the power and patronage it once had.
But it is clinging to a privileged position which the forces of this state and the British government still bestow upon it and as a consequence inflate its ego.
Their marching plans are now the principle source of instability and poison the political and human atmosphere every year.
Many Catholics view the Orange Order as an Irish version of the Klu Klux Klan or the National Front.
Their marches into Catholic/nationalist areas should be banned and the British government should start with Ardoyne.
Copyright © 2005 Irish News