“The Orange Order, of
course, has every right to stage its march. But for the sake of order, and our
nation's image before the world, it should desist.”
These are not my words, nor
are they a reference to the controversial Twelfth parade past Ardoyne shops.
They were penned by a leader writer at Scotland’s Sunday Herald, about a march due
to take place in Edinburgh shortly before September’s independence referendum.
Still, the advice might be
even more applicable to their brethren in North Belfast.
The clock-watchers have been
chipping in to the debate, estimating that Saturday’s banned homeward leg by
the Ligoniel lodges would take only six minutes to complete. No big deal, they
say. Why all the fuss?
Why indeed?
If the march is, as they
would have it, no big deal, why withdraw from a talks initiative over it? Why
draw up a protest campaign against it? Why unite with political opponents over
it? Why make common cause with parties linked to paramilitary groups over it?
Why heighten tension and spread fear over it?
No big deal? Actions – or
more accurately reactions – speak louder than words.
Unionist politicians have
struck discordant notes in the days since their “graduated response” to the
Parades Commission’s determination was announced. Arlene Foster told
yesterday’s Good Morning Ulster programme that she was “very clear” what the
graduated response was. Just over an
hour later, her party colleague Gregory Campbell told Stephen Nolan that they
didn’t know what was going to happen: “...We don’t know how these things will
play out.” For the first time in my recollection, the right hand didn’t know
what the right hand was doing.
I suspect things may play
out rather badly.
In its determination last
week, the Parades Commission seemed to suggest that the reaction to last year’s
ruling – “such as the call by some within the Orange Order to protest against
the July 2013 determination, a protest which culminated in violence...” –
influenced last Thursday’s decision. In terms of next year’s attempt to complete
the homeward leg to Ligoniel, the Orange Order and the collective Unionist
leadership may already have shot themselves in the foot.
While politicians have been delivering
mixed messages about the sinister-sounding “graduated response”, they’re not
nearly as confused as the so-called rationale underpinning this latest
campaign.
Nowadays, Unionist ‘culture’
is expressed overwhelmingly through flags, parades and bonfires. We’re asked to
believe that this culture is under threat but evidence suggests otherwise. Only
last week, a study by Queen’s University reported that the number of parades
here had more than doubled in the eight years up until 2013. The number of
Union, Ulster, loyalist paramilitary and even Ku Klux Klan flags flying here
would keep a small army of seamstresses busy round the clock. And bonfire
towers climb so high into the air that you can barely make out whose image is
being burned. The collaboration of parties, four of whom were cutting lumps out
of one another only a couple of months ago, makes the situation ‘curiouser and
curiouser’.
Unionist leaders have
spouted some rubbish to justify their “graduated response”. Acknowledging a threat
to the institutions, Peter Robinson pointed the finger at the Parades
Commission. By the same logic a motorist might blame the Highway Code after
being caught speeding.
Most bizarre of all has been
the pretence that this is all being done to channel justifiable anger and
protect democracy. Normally, at this point, children in the audience cry out,
“Look behind you.”
If Unionist leaders do turn around,
they’ll see people linked to groups which brought terror to communities like
Ardoyne. They make strange bedfellows.
The Ligoniel controversy is
not simply about a 6 minute march. It’s about 40 years of history. Or 100
years. How long have you got?
Shrewder Orangemen in
Scotland would do their brethren here a big favour if they called them on the ‘QT’
and advised them to desist at Ligoniel – for the sake of order and their
nation.
