The Other View

Under the leadership of ‘the fool on the hill’ at Drumcree, Orange marches have joined the endless list of contentious issues that allegedly threaten to destabilise the Northern State’s new-found equilibrium. It is amazing that bigotry is so gripping, it blinds many in the Unionist camp to the fact that in order to secure an internal settlement, the asking price was always going to be a change in the design of the interior wallpaper – a lot less orange, a bit more green.

In defence of Orangeism there are those who continue insisting that the phenomenon is nothing more than a mere celebration of culture and religious expression. Yesteryear – when many nationalists were as tame and timid as Balmoral Republicans and ‘knew their place’ – is pointed to as evidence that there were few complaints about parades.

This argument depends on the illusion that the Orange Order is made up of what Ed Moloney calls its "festival wing". If so, then it would be possible to see matters in a different light. How many on Garvaghy Road would be seen to object if a Notting Hill type carnival were to proceed through the area? Festivals conjure up imagery of gaiety and inclusiveness. But Roy Garland has written of the air o intolerance that pervades some grand lodge meetings and the spirit of persecution now directed at the Good Friday Agreement Orangemen and the RUC. This is what the ‘festival wing’ blind spot ignores.

My experience of Orange marches was different from many of my generation. Having grown up in an area which was largely Protestant ours was the first catholic family in the lower Ormeau Road’s Bagot Street. Parades then appeared largely jovial affairs. But the age of innocence quickly evaporated when the term ‘taig’ entered my knowledge – specifically as it was directed against myself by others who felt Orangeism had dimensions other than festive. Not only was it conveyed to me that I was different, but also lesser.

In the early seventies I was living with my family on the front of the lower Ormeau Road, about two hundred yards below Graham’s Bookmakers where later Orange marches were to celebrate the killings of five Catholics on the premises. It was a Sunday afternoon and my memory of the Orange parade that day is hazy, due to having to view the proceedings over the arm of an RUC member – an extremity I was trying to bite assisted by my mates Fra and Mock – while his hand was firmly locked around my throat. I was in my own home, not allowed across my own front door by a foul-mouth RUC bigot screaming sectarian obscenities in my face while he ensured other bigots could stop at our home and pound their drums.

The message of the drums was clear and has been put succinctly by Kevin Haddick Flynn in his recent history of Orangeism: "We are the masters here and you are Fenian scum – we will march where we wish and you are powerless to stop us… We are your superiors, we dare you to do something about it, if you don’t you confirm your own inferior status". Orange parades could only be seen in one light after that and hopefully are never to be allowed to set foot on the lower Ormeau Road again.

People talk about the freedom to march and assemble. The problem here is that the gander should have to consider supping it’s own sauce. If Republicans were to invoke the principle to march for the purposes of parading to the Shankill Road to honour our Volunteer Thomas Begley there would be uproar. No matter how much honour Volunteer Begley may be due coupled with the republican tradition of honouring it’s fallen, it would still be only the most arrogant and insensitive among the republicans who would insist on exercising such a right.

From a position of being politically invincible at the turn of the last century the Orange Order has become a standing global joke. What a strange sight it must make – bowler hatted bigots with swords, sashes and white gloves screaming "we must get down that road". The Dutch and Belgians must see a difference only in attire between them and the recent England football thugs screaming ‘no surrender to the IRA’.

Orangeism will dissipate. Ridicule rather than season will ensure the dimmer switch will stay on. Only the dimmer among the Orangemen will stay on as well.

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