A repressive state marching to the beat of a Lambeg drum
Posted by Jim on July 8, 2025
THE IRISH NEWS:
Opinion
Tom Collins: A repressive state marching to the beat of a Lambeg drum.
There are those who would like us to see the Twelfth as an anthropological curiosity, nothing more than a quaint ritual, steeped in ancient history and alluring to tourists. But it is nothing of the sorts
Metropolitan Police officers removing 83-year-old Reverend Sue Parfitt from a protest in support of Palestine Action.
By Tom Collins
July 08, 2025 at 6:00am BST
The good citizens of Belfast will have some sympathy with the Pope who has decided to get out of Rome and spend the Twelfth fortnight in the cooler hills around Castel Gandolfo.
Fleeing the city is as much a Twelfth ritual as bonfires, and bowler hats, and fire and brimstone preachers.
There are those who would like us to see the Twelfth as an anthropological curiosity, nothing more than a quaint ritual, steeped in ancient history and alluring to tourists.
Such is this myth’s potency that broadcasters fawn over the colourful display of finery, and newspapers fill their pages with smiling children, pageantry and musically-talented bandsmen no more likely to kick a cat than they are to kick the Pope.
But the Twelfth is nothing of the sorts. The Twelfth is a naked celebration of oppression, a triumphalist festival of sectarianism, and an opportunity for some to glorify the state-sponsored terrorism of loyalist killers.
Just count the UVF banners as they are paraded through our towns.
To the powers-that-be, that is all invisible.
Look at the north’s official tourism website – discovernorthernireland.com – and you will enter a fantasy world. I have read it so you don’t have to pollute your internet search history.
The intro is worth quoting in full: “Get ready Belfast – July 12, 2025, is shaping up to be one for the history books! This year, the city will come alive in a blaze of color, tradition and celebration as it marks the 335th anniversary of King William III’s famous victory at the Battle of the Boyne – a defining moment that laid the foundations of civil and religious liberty across the British Isles.”
Well, knock me off my white horse.
“A defining moment that laid the foundations for civil and religious liberty across the British Isles.” This is fiction presented as fact on a state-sponsored website paid for by you and me.
Tell this story of “civil and religious liberty” to the Catholics and dissenters who were subject to penal laws; tell it to the Tol puddle martyrs who tried to organize a trades union; tell it to the victims of the Peterloo Massacre; the Suffragettes; the McMahons and victims of the Arnon Street killings, murdered by the Ulster Special Constabulary in 1922; the families denied a living and decent housing throughout the history of Northern Ireland because they were Catholic; the victims of Bloody Sunday, the Ballymurphy Massacre, McGurk’s Bar; Greysteel; and tell it to the men and women being arrested today for supporting Palestine Action and its campaign against the genocide in Gaza.
If King Billy laid the foundations for civil and religious liberty in Britain, it was for an elite; an establishment which – even under a so-called Labour Government – is still doing all it can to quash legitimate protest, to demonise the poor and the vulnerable, and to support a global military machine which operates only in the interests of dictators and billionaires.
The proscription of Palestine Action under the Terrorism Act of 2000 is a shameful decision which brings further disgrace to an already compromised Labour Government.
Who is next? Greenpeace? Friends of the Earth? Liberty (The human rights group not the department store)?
At the weekend the Metropolitan Police in London arrested 29 people for holding placards which referred to Palestine Action – those held included an 83-year-old priest, Sue Parfit.
“We are losing our civil liberties,” she said. “We must stop that for everybody’s sake.”
She needs to take that up with King Billy and Discover Northern Ireland. But of course they are only interested in a fake interpretation of history which pretends we are free when in fact many of us are in chains. Incarcerated climate change activists spring to mind.
It says everything about the current British government that expressing support for Palestine Action is now punishable by up to 14 years in prison; yet, if you express support for the UVF, you’ll get a government grant.
Secretary of State Hilary Benn turned up at a Twelfth demonstration in Irvinestown last year. Perhaps this year he could bring Home Secretary Yvette Cooper with him.
There will be those who seek to differentiate between the ‘old’ UVF and its current iteration (allegedly on the point of calling it a day – don’t bet on it). The reality of course is somewhat different.
The UVF was founded to weaponise opposition to Home Rule, to put the Catholics in their place, and to thwart democracy.
Gunrunner-in-chief Edward Carson was pretty explicit: “We must be prepared… the morning Home Rule passes, ourselves to become responsible for the Protestant province of Ulster.” Northern Ireland was forged on the anvil of terror.
Have a look at the guff on discovernorthernireland.com: “Belfast 2025 is more than a parade — it’s a celebration of history, identity, and shared community spirit.”
“Shared community spirit?” Your Holiness, pass me the sick bag, please.