Orange Order marches
Reports obtained from:
(1) Irelandclick.com, (2) Irish News, (3) Daily Ireland
Saturday, 24 June, 2006
Thursday, 22 June, 2006
Wednesday, 21 June, 2006
Cash up in smoke Disruption at Twelfth proves a costly business
By Damian McCarney
Get set to put your hand deep in your pocket as more vast sums of public cash go up in smoke as Belfast braces itself for another summer of bonfires and marches.
Each year Orange Order marches bring the city to a standstill with parades, road blockages, bonfires and sporadic violence. The activity on the streets places a huge financial burden on public bodies which is inevitably footed by the taxpayer.
The Andersonstown News contacted the numerous public agencies whose services are called on over the Twelfth to count costs of last year's loyalist ‘celebrations'.
Of the three emergency services, the PSNI account for the greatest cost. The expense of policing the Twelfth marches in Belfast came to £642,000. However, this almost pales into insignificance when we consider that policing for marches across the whole of the North from April 1 until September 30 last year cost a startling £9,242,580.
The Ambulance Service is over twice as busy on the Eleventh Night as any other, with 72 call-outs as compared to 34 call-outs on an average night. The cost of employing the six additional crews required for both the Eleventh and Twelfth to cope with the extra demand comes to £3,600.
Surprisingly, the Fire Service claims to have no additional expense for these two days. In Belfast they do not employ extra staff for the Eleventh Night as they have full-time staff who receive the same payment whether they are called out or not. However, their crews and vehicles are put under increased pressure as they received 78 bonfire-related calls last year on the Eleventh Night.
The Roads Service spent £66,000 on repairing what the Department for Regional Development (DRD) call ‘burn sites' in Belfast. Burn sites are where loyalist youths build bonfires on the road causing enormous damage to the tarmac surface.
Last year Belfast City Council provided loyalist groups with £50,000 as part of a Bonfire Management Pilot Scheme in a bid to encourage a more responsible approach by bonfire organisers. This year Belfast City Council has doled out £45,000. In addition, Belfast City Council also spent £48,000 on cleaning up the bonfire mess.
Eleventh night bonfires are often held on Housing Executive green areas. The charred remains must be removed but the most significant damage, financially speaking, is that caused to the scorched earth.
In 2003, the last time that an assessment of costs was conducted, the Housing Executive had spent £4,500-£5,000 on reseeding green areas and conducting repairs to damaged properties in Belfast.
Across the North, in 2003 they spent £91,000, the majority of which was on reseeding after bonfires.
These costs do not include the loss incurred to both businesses and the exchequer from the Twelfth's status as a bank holiday.
In addition to the cost met from the public purse there were also huge expenses on private individuals which are incalculable.
Sinn Féin councillor Paul Maskey said that the money is wasted and greatly needed elsewhere.
“If this money was redirected into local facilities it would make an enormous difference. Just look at Féile who have lost £100,000 in funding and yet they have brought millions and millions into the West of the city.”
The total cost of the Twelfth in Belfast is £814,600. No-one from the Orange Order was available for comment.
Copyright © 2006 Irelandclick.com
Timely reminder to second-class nationalists
By Jim Gibney, Irish News
In case any one is in any doubt about the purpose behind Orange marches the decision by the Parades Commission in relation to an Orange march on Belfast's Springfield Road this weekend is a timely reminder of what they are about.
Orange marches have one purpose and one purpose only – to remind Catholics and nationalists of their second-class status.
Whether it was Orangemen marching on the Longstone Road, Annalong in the 1950s, Obin Street in Portadown, Derry's Walls or the Springfield Road, Orange marches exist to remind nationalists of their lack of power and their lack of political rights.
The marches are public demonstrations of political domination by unionists of their Catholic neighbours.
Unionist and Orange political power might be waning in the face of the peace process but the Parades Commission's decision proves the Order still retains the capacity to impose its will on society and in particular on the Catholic community on the Springfield Road.
The Orange Order still has the power to dictate to and mobilise the forces of the British state to ensure it is protected. This will be demonstrated when the Parades Commission's decision is policed with the usual military tactics which amount to a curfew. Residents will be hemmed in their homes; their lives disrupted living in a climate of fear.
The Order still has enough influence and strength inside the political and military system to secure decisions which undermine the peace process and do irrevocable damage to community relations.
The parade on the Springfield Road is even more offensive because it is a march associated with the UVF who are responsible for killing many Catholics from that area.
All shades of unionism, political and paramilitary, are involved in this march – the Ulster Unionists, the DUP, the Orange Order, PUP, UVF and UDA. It was this sectarian coalition which justified the mayhem last September when the Parades Commission correctly re-routed the Orange march away from Workman Avenue.
Before making his decision did Roger Poole, chairperson of the Parades Commission, bother to assess the involvement by Orangemen in last September's street violence? They were clearly involved at every stage of the disturbances.
Orange Order violence set the scene for a week of mayhem which spread across Belfast. It involved 150 gun attacks, blast bombs, hundreds of petrol bombs and vehicles being hijacked. Belfast's daily life came to a halt.
The Orange Order and unionist politicians blamed the Parades Commission and absolved themselves from any responsibility.
The new Parades Commission, which includes Orange Order members and sympathisers, have rewarded those behind last September's violence.
The commission also includes, Joe Hendron, former SDLP MP for West Belfast. He needs to publicly explain to his former constituents if he supported the Orange Order's application.
The statement from the Parades Commission chairperson defending his decision is breathtakingly naive.
He described last September's violence as "savage and shameful" and then incomprehensibly says this violence will not be allowed to hold back progress towards a "shared future".
For Poole the "shared future" is allowing unwanted Orange parades to march through Catholic and nationalist areas.
In what can only be described as a bout of wishful thinking to bolster his decision Poole described low-level contact between both sides as "courageous, real and meaningful" dialogue.
Meaningful dialogue is what is needed. Low-level contact should not be exaggerated to fit into the commission's agenda.
The Orange Order should be judged on their intentions. And their intentions are to cause offence to people in places like the Springfield Road. On that basis Orange parades which apply to go through areas where they are not wanted should be banned.
The Orange Order is a secret, oath-bound, sectarian, anti-Catholic organisation. It forfeits any rights it has when it seeks to march through Catholic areas where it is not welcome.
No-one should try to balance out the rights residents have to live free from sectarian intimidation and those of Orangemen. There is no equivalence.
Residents should be protected by the state against the Orange Order which is the aggressor.
No-one would suggest that racists or anti-Semites have rights over those they seek to trample over.
The same attitude should apply to the Orange Order.
Copyright © 2006 Irish News
Violence rewarded, while Feile gets punished
By Danny Morrison
Last September there was major loyalist rioting in Belfast after the Orange Order and UVF were curtailed from marching through a nationalist part of the city's Springfield Road.
Last Monday the Parades Commission (which includes two members that to nationalists suggest an Orange lobby) ruled that Orangemen will now be allowed through this contentious area. It has put certain restrictions on next Saturday's proposed march but this does not assuage the anger that nationalists feel about their rights being ignored.
Mainstream unionists refused to condemn last year's rioting. They linked it to anger over the Parades Commission's decision and to "a sense of alienation" among working-class unionists who feel they are being deprived of their fair share of government money in comparison to investment in nationalist areas.
Belatedly, unionists have come to recognise the concept of alienation - which they derided in nationalists.
Unionist parties, particularly the DUP, boast of the quality of their representation, their attendance record at Westminster, at how many committees they sit on and how many questions they table. All, apparently, to no avail. So, the degree of demoralisation within unionist communities is not unconnected to the ineffectiveness, complacency and the obsessive negative policies of those whom they elect. Ian Paisley Jr boasts that he prefers British direct rule to power-sharing if that means having a Sinn Feiner about the place.
Nationalist areas, despite unionist propaganda, are not funded in a generous or privileged way but have had to fight tooth and nail with government departments and statutory bodies. The struggle to reverse decades of structural discrimination, generational unemployment and low wages is far from over.
Where there has been a reversal of traditional sectarian malpractices and discrimination it is because nationalist representatives and community activists have been tenacious in their job. It is this campaigning spirit and limited successes, and not a sense of triumphalism, which has given rise to a buoyant and optimistic mood among nationalists.
The cost to the taxpayer/exchequer of last September's loyalist rioting and destruction was £3 million (€4.2 million).
Many years ago, buses used to be burnt on the Falls Road at a cost in compensation of about £100,000 for two, I think.
That was before Feile an Phobail was established as a West Belfast community arts festival in 1988.The festival was aimed as a positive alternative to the annual protests linked to the anniversary of the introduction of internment and RUC/British army attacks on marchers or those at bonfires.It was aimed at supplanting riots and civil strife and providing an alternative to conflict.
Of course, its critics never let up about its political debates and lectures or sporting events named after dead republicans. If you weren't moulded in their middle-class, middle-of-the-road image, and no matter what good you were doing, you were to be demonised and denigrated, especially if you were having fun.
Over the years the festival - as a result of voluntary workers, and funding from state and statutory bodies - became better organised and formally established with an office and staff. West Belfast is not prolific in terms of businesses, industry or financial corporations yet thanks to consistent sponsors, such as Bass Ireland, the festival became the envy of even mainstream festivals and a major attraction to overseas visitors. During festival time people were employed as bar and security staff. The resources of the area were utilised and optimised.
Feile an Phobail also sees itself as having a role in education and in promoting non-sectarianism, community relations, inclusiveness, anti-racism.
Given the historic deprivation in the area prices were kept at a minimum and all literary, political events and lectures were deliberately free. The events which made some profit - marquee concerts, comedy night, tribute nights - helped to defray the costs of some of the cultural events which had received only limited funding, but it was never easy.
The Northern Ireland Events Company (NIEC) - which is funded by the Department of Arts, Culture and Leisure (DCAL) - likes to subsidise the occasional Elton John or Pavarotti concert in the grounds of Stormont.
Four years ago it refused to fund the Harlem Gospel Choir at Clonard Monastery for spurious reasons, including that it made no "significant contribution to promoting social cohesion." All the main churches were represented, including Buddhists and Hare Krishnas, and a delegation of Shankill women's group. That same week DCAL listed Feile as attracting the largest audience in Belfast City Council area. The refusal meant that Feile had to find more than £10,000 to cover costs.
Last year it was faced with laying off five workers because of pending cutbacks. However, a representative at DCAL intimated that the posts would be funded and that we shouldn't lay anyone off. We continued to pay these staff but were then told three months ago that there would be no funding. The result: Feile accrued debts which it can only probably only discharge by remortgaging Feile House - and we had to lay off the five workers.
Nevertheless, between the staff working extra-hard, and with the help of sub-committees, planning for this year's August festival went ahead. Acts and speakers were booked, flights organised, halls hired, sound and lighting equipment ordered, a programme drawn up and designed, ready for printing, all in the usual, nerve-wracking funding vacuum dictated by government practice.The Department of Social Development (DSD) and DCAL, which had been major funders of festivals, have been faffing around for some years deciding on a festivals policy. Last February they announced that a Community Festivals Fund with an annual budget of £450,000 would be administered by the Northern Ireland Events Company.
On March 2 the Northern Ireland Events Company stated that the budget was to be divided into three tranches of £150,000. The second tranche - applying to festivals between August 1st and November 30th - was the one for which Feile could apply, along with established festivals and new ones.
Last year Feile received £145,000 for events and associated costs. On Monday Feile received a letter from the NIEC announcing a major reduction in funding to £45,000, a massive cut which has the potential to gut Feile 2006. However, the letter from the NIEC was also quite insulting. It said: "[we feel that] your festival shows potential to be a very successful and sustainable event." Feile has been successful for 18 years, has attracted hundreds of thousands of people to west Belfast, has helped stabilise the area, has played its part in offering a platform to the unionist community in debates and discussions, has broadened the minds of people (with lectures from the Battle of the Somme to Shackleton's Antartic to Michael Moore's 'Bowling for Columbine') and has brought a little bit of peace and stability into a conflict-wracked community. The August programme has now been thrown into total disarray leaving the events manager with the nightmare of deciding what gigs to cancel. There is anger in West Belfast at this attack on what is after all a unique people's festival. One can understand if alongside that anger they are also feeling just a little bit alienated, after all that we have been through.
Danny Morrison is a Daily Ireland columnist and joint-chair of Feile an Phobail
Copyright © 2006 Daily Ireland
Placating loyalism is not the answer
Daily Ireland Editorial
Editor: Colin O'Carroll
After the mature and sensible agreement hammered out between nationalist residents of Ardoyne and loyalists over the contentious Tour of the North parade, hopes were high that a similar deal could see peace break out on the Whiterock Road which last year was the catalyst for an orgy of UVF and UDA-orchestrated mayhem.
Those hopes have now been dashed after the Parades Commission ruled in favour of the Orange Order, claiming that both sides had failed to reach agreement. Of course, that's exactly the kind of insulting tripe that we can expect from a commission which has been fatally tainted by the crass intervention of a secretary of state who appointed two Orangemen to the body but didn't even bother to call any of the residents' groups.
The nationalist residents of the Springfield Road - and indeed across the North - have been up front and open in their repeatedly expressed desire for dialogue. The loyal orders, on the other hand, have prevaricated and disseminated, adapting their position not in an attempt to hammer out lasting deals, but in response to whatever direction they perceive the political wind to be blowing. The Whiterock Orangemen knew they had a trump card to play. The widespread violence that was seen across the city last year has already paid a handsome dividend for loyalists in terms of an immediate financial windfall from a British government which long ago recognised that when it comes to difficult decisions, ruling in favour of loyalists will always lead to considerably less violence.
Local residents and nationalist politicians have argued until they are blue in the face that any decision to give the infammatory Workman Avenue route the green light would fly in the face of reason and logic. It can be no surprise to this community that once again, when it comes to loyalist marches, reason and logic have lost out to cynicism and threats.
We hope that this absurd ruling can be challenged and overturned, but in the meantime we are confident that local residents and their community and political representatives will do all in their power to ensure that Saturday passes off peacefully, whatever direction the march takes. But in the longer term, if the Parades Commission believes that placating the Orange Order and their pals in the loyalist paramilitary groups is an answer to this problem, then we are in bigger trouble than we thought. Did any of the members of the commission stop to think of the long-term implications of this crazy decision. If not, we're quite happy to tell them. What you have done is to set back the time when the loyalist paramilitaries decide to even consider calling it a day by years, if not decades. You have told them, in effect, that they are the defenders and upholders of loyalist culture; that they are, to use a phrase beloved of the PSNI Chief Constable, 'fit for purpose'.What an appalling price to pay for such a sordid little deal. A grim bargain indeed.
Copyright © 2006 Daily Ireland