back to Niagara Falls Reporter archive
Imagine a series of parades, complete with thousands of participants singing along with bands, carrying signs, holding flags and marching through neighborhoods.
Now imagine what those parades would be like if the participants were Neo-Nazis and the neighborhoods they tramped through were those belonging to people of the Jewish faith. Or if the marchers were Ku Klux Klan members striding by the homes of African-Americans.
To most of us, the idea of groups supporting racism and genocide marching through the communities of those whom they discriminate against and wish to destroy is appalling.
Such bigoted and dangerous displays are a regular event in Northern Ireland every spring and summer.
Parades have been an integral and vital aspect of Northern Ireland society since the 18th Century. They have been used as a means to celebrate and commemorate crucial historical battles, while also fulfilling religious, social and political roles. While there is nothing wrong with one group peacefully honoring their past, it is another thing to blatantly and spitefully impose that past in a derogatory manner on people who hold differing beliefs.
When tensions arising from these situations result in abuse of human rights, social breakdown, injuries and death, then the time has come to change the tradition.
The past five summers in Northern Ireland have seen some attempt to move toward change. In 1996, after increasing violence between the marching Protestant Orange Order lodges, Catholic residents whose neighborhoods were being paraded through, and the former Royal Ulster Constabulary police force (now the NPSI), an independent commission led by a group of -- theoretically -- impartial members was created by Great Britain's conservative government to oversee and eventually pass judgment upon the parading tradition.
In its short lifetime, the Parades Commission has had to deal with some contentious situations, all of which come back to the crux of the Northern Irish problem -- a perpetually shaky political structure and a Protestant majority that is now realizing just how slim that majority really is.
Orange Order parades are like no other, and the Parades Commission has consistently, and unsurprisingly, drawn criticism from both Protestant unionists and Catholic citizens (republican or otherwise) for its decisions on which parades are allowed to occur, which should continue along traditional routes, which are to be rerouted, and what the marchers are or are not allowed to do during the parade itself. Protestants decry the limitation of their so-called 'free speech' while Catholics point out that some parades are still allowed to continue unwanted through Catholic neighborhoods.
The parades have come to signify the conflict that has existed in Northern Ireland since the southern portion of the island was given autonomy from the British in 1921. Protestant parades are supposed to be an expression of religious rights, a testimony of faith, and a celebration of liberty. Orange Order leaders would have the world believe that the parades are not meant to be a show of supremacy against the Catholics. Some parades seem to hold true to this statement.
The problem is with the parades that result in destruction and violence. The largest and most contested parade of the season takes place on July 12 in remembrance of the Battle of the Boyne, a conflict which took place in 1690. King James II, who was a Roman Catholic, had been deposed by the British Parliament and replaced by his daughter, Mary, and her husband, William of Orange, Protestants, who became Queen Mary II and King William III. The Battle of the Boyne marked the decisive defeat of James' attempt to regain the throne.
This parade annually features contested and destructive marches through beleaguered Catholic neighborhoods, such as the Portadown/Drumcree area.
The Parades Commission, in an attempt to defuse the tension that surrounds this particular parade, has imposed restrictions on the route and the actions of the participants. In the years prior to the creation of the Parades Commission, Orangemen were allowed to march down the streets of Catholic residents, hurl sectarian abuse at them, destroy individual property, and play pro-loyalist music. Forced to deal with this imposed religious racism, Catholic residents fought back, causing some of these neighborhoods to resemble war zones, complete with barbed wire, blockades, and paramilitary groups.
During the 1998 parade, three young Catholic boys were burned alive in their home by loyalist protesters who were angered that the Drumcree march had been rerouted to avoid some Catholic areas. Orange Order marchers have since been instructed to refrain from playing music (hymns are allowed at some times), wearing pro-loyalist paramilitary uniforms, carrying flags and banners with words or images that could be considered threatening, insulting, or abusive, consuming alcohol, and shouting obscenities while walking by Catholic homes and churches.
In 2001, there was a slight reduction in violence, although there were fierce riots in nationalist areas, and two Catholics lost their lives in sectarian killings that were related to the heightened hostilities and new parade restrictions.
The Orange Order's response to last year's parade limitations was to protest, to refuse to enter into any talks -- especially those involving the Parades Commission -- and to attempt to sue the Parades Commission, alleging that the rerouting of some of the parades was a violation of human rights and civil liberties.
In July, 2000, Parades Commission chairman Tony Holland pinpointed the single most problematic attitude upheld by the Orange Order, stating the parades have caused 'a climate of fear and intimidation in the nationalist areas of Portadown, together with real stress' and that the Commission 'has tried, time and time again, to alert the Orange Order that this strategy is unacceptable, even counterproductive.'
Two years later, not much has changed, except for the fact that the Orangemen have one last, desperate card to play -- painting themselves as victims.
Striving for a positive spin on an increasingly negative situation, the Orange Order used last year's Drumcree parade to call attention to their rerouted parade route. They claimed that the rights of Northern Irish Protestants were being debased and their civil and religious liberties were being infringed.
'The institution intends to launch a campaign to highlight our human rights to the world,' Orange Order Grand Master Robert Saulters said to a crowd of protesters stationed near a blockaded Drumcree Church last year. 'This may not be a battle we win today but we can, and we will, continue to fight for the restoration of our fundamental human rights.'
Saulters had the audacity to call the blocking of parade routes a 'slap in the face for enslaved people everywhere and a pat on the back for those who advocate apartheid and genocide.'
George Patton, executive officer of the Orange Order, echoed Saulters' thoughts. 'The (Parades) Commission and how it works legitimizes a concept of apartheid,' Patton said. 'It accepts the view that the public highway cannot be used by certain groups because people of a different tradition might live on a part of that route -- and this gives a certain amount of credibility to an apartheid-based system, based on cultural, racial or religious grounds.'
For the Orange Order to align itself with those who have suffered from such unspeakable affronts as genocide and apartheid is the epitome of hypocrisy. The Orangemen are hardly in a position to be tossing about the term 'human rights' since they seem to have an awfully hard time recognizing what it means. Human rights would categorically cover all human beings, not just the ones who happen to be Orange Order members and Protestants. And if marching through another community's neighborhood, asserting your religion's supposed dominance over theirs, and threatening lives while degrading and demeaning the residents falls under the Orange Order's definition of 'human rights,' then someone needs to hand these gentlemen a dictionary.
However, the Orange Order's ludicrous cries have been heard. The Parades Commission, despite the reappointment of all its members in December, 2001, is currently, for the second time in its history, under review. Unionists want to see the Parades Commission reformed, if not removed entirely.
While under review, the Parades Commission recently held a conference to prepare for the upcoming 2002 marching season and invited members of the Orange Order to represent the Protestant side of this issue. But as the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland does not recognize or communicate with the Parades Commission, it was not expected that many Orange representatives would attend.
Believing that there is a republican/nationalist bias on the part of the Commission, the Orange Order is fond of declaring that the Catholic residents are merely mouthpieces for the republican party, Sinn Fein, and its military wing, the Irish Republican Army. The Orange Order conveniently 'forgets' its own association with such loyalist groups as the Ulster Defense Association and the Ulster Volunteer Force, amongst others.
These groups have been accused of the deaths at least seven people.
The Ulster Bands Association refused to take part in the conference, claiming that it has the 'potential to further alienate and demoralize people of the Protestant/unionist/loyalist community who cherish their marching tradition ... only a balanced and transparent format, representing all major players, could have bestowed credibility to the conference.'
That 'balanced' format could have been achieved, of course, if one half of the equation had bothered to show up.
Perhaps Holland has it right when he says, 'That is the problem with Northern Ireland. There is this tremendous divide, which is surprising in a Christian society, where you'd think they would pay regards to the story of the Good Samaritan -- they don't practice what they preach. Every institution that is involved on a decision-making process in Northern Ireland reflects the fact that it's a deeply divided society -- and that's how they seem to like it.'
The Orange Order claims to hold only peaceful parades. Patton feels that 'parades are an integral part of our Ulster Scots heritage and are no more contentious than other cultural parades and carnivals regularly held all over the world.'
If this were true, there would be no need for a Parades Commission, no need for a discussion of human rights. If this were true, then we Americans should be spending our Independence Day over in England, rubbing their noses in our 200-year-old revolutionary victory.
The Orange Order may feel that they are 'committed and devout Christians (who would never) condone such attitudes towards anyone of any faith, race or creed,' and that statement is most likely true for some Orangemen, but certainly not for all. Especially not those who walk through parades carrying signs declaring, 'Oppose your pervert priests, not our parades,' and 'The future's bright, the future's Orange.'
Unfortunately, this spring and summer will, in all likelihood, provide another chapter to this continuously dangerous situation. Only the efforts of an outside group, such as the Parades Commission, and meaningful discussion between Protestant and Catholic communities, can make a difference in this vicious, repetitive circle.
Until that time, if the Orange Order needs an example of a people whose human rights have been consistently infringed upon, they need only to look at the Catholic people they parade by each summer.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | March 12 2002 |