Nationalists hemmed in for sectarian march

Posted by Jim on July 7, 2018

Steel barriers sealed off the nationalist Short Strand last Monday to

facilitate the passage of a sectarian parade by the anti-Catholic Orange
Order, infuriating local residents but without causing any of the
violence seen in previous years.

The PSNI police said some disruption for the parade, held annually in
the first week of July, “was to be expected”. They said that there had
been “no issues or disorder” in any part of the city linked to the
march.

Other major parades passed without violence, as the Protestant marching
season builds for its climax next Thursday, when hundreds of parades are
held to mark the Twelfth of July, the anniversary of a Protestant battle
victory over Catholics in 1690.

A new parade to ‘float the banner’ through a mixed area of north
Belfast, that had raised fears of creating a new flashpoint, also passed
quietly. The procession through Kilcoole was held to deliver a banner to
the home of the Orange Order’s new “worshipful master”.

The Parades Commission said it had received “substantial” representation
from residents, although the march ultimately passed off without a
protest. The parade was the first application from a “re-established”
lodge.

The annual Whiterock Orange Order parade in northwest Belfast also
passed off peacefully at the weekend. For the third successive year it
was restricted from passing a nationalist section of the Springfield
Road.

The annual Drumcree parade, which caused intense violence in the 1990s,
takes place tomorrow, Sunday 7 July, but only a token protest is
expected from unionists who are again rerouted from the nationalist area
of Portadown.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the last time the district lodge
was allowed to conduct an infamously coat-trailing parade through the
nationalist Garvaghy Road. Nevertheless, tensions remain in the area
over an annual ‘junior’ Orange parade at the lower end of the road, as
well as the construction of an Orange arch nearby.

There was a small protest in the Scottish town of Cowdenbeath last
weekend, where DUP leader Arlene Foster addressed the Orange Order’s
annual demonstration in the east of Scotland. A banner with the words
“Love not hate” was hung from homes as the march passed through the town
without the support of local residents.

From an erected stage, one Orangeman denounced Scottish-born James
Connolly, a signatory of the 1916 Proclamation and a leader of the
Easter Rising, as a “terrorist”, before shouting “No surrender”.

Another, wearing a sash and a chaplain’s collar, delivered a sectarian
tirade against the town’s Catholic population. He said: “There are many
in this town who are not only enemies of this institution, but who are
enemies of Christ.”

Addressing the crowd, Foster ironically claimed the Orange Order is on
the receiving end of bigotry and intolerance. “This country needs to be
a shared place where people are able to live free from intolerance and
hatred,” she said. “Such bigotry was not part of King William’s mindset
and it should not be part of ours, nor directed towards us either.”