Stephen McBride ([email protected])
Tue, 22 Sep 1998 19:16:28 +0100
> Actually, according to one of the Republic's leading writers, the sight
> which outstripped the annual celebrations for St Patrick was the 12th of
> July Orange parade in Belfast.
>
> Irish Times columnist Nuala O'Faolain - who went up to Belfast to live but
> came back to Dublin after seven months - was raving about the Orange
> parades when she appeared on the Gay Byrne show on RTE radio yesterday.
>
> She beamed: "One of the good things was the Orange parade in Belfast on
> the 12th of July."
Both sets of parades, until recent years, were effectively days out
for the respective communities. Orange order and Ancient Order of
Hiberian bands regularly shared instruments, for instance...
>
> But that appears to have been one of the few things that the columnist
> liked during her stint north of the border - or "up there" as it's known.
>
> Ms O'Faolain went up to get to know the real Northern Ireland - the
> Northern Ireland behind the newspaper headlines that people in the
> Republic never see.
>
> In the end she came to the conclusion that there wasn't much else to write
> about.
>
> She also came away with the altogether shocking conclusion that there is a
> lot of bigotry in Northern Ireland.
>
> She said yesterday of the Republic: "We are lucky we don't know about
> hating people because they are the other."
>
> What Ms O'Faolain realised is that there are bigots in Northern Ireland
> who don't like Catholics.
Elizabeth, this may shock your innocent little "Irish" American
sensibilities, and distinctly warped perception of history, but, guess
what? There are such things as catholic bigots too!! Isn't that a
shock? As anyone, not only in Ulster, but from the Irish Republic
who had to put up with decades of thought police tactics from the
Irish catholic church, will tell you!! Thankfully this is changing,
however...
> She spoke of her shock at going to the Ballymoney estate where the Quinn
> children were murdered and seeing the indifference in people's faces.
>
> What's new?
Indeed. This comes from living in a violent society, and being
gradually desensitised to violence. Something few middle class
yanks would really have a clue about!! Incidentally, the Quinn
murders now look to have been carried out by
relatives/acquaintances of the Quinn family, and it seems more
likely that this was a drugs related crime - something, alas, all too
common on British working class housing estates. I tend to
believe this take on a horrible, horrible occurance, simply because
Tony Blair, the British PM, or his Civil Servants has been
conducting a fairly concentrated smear on the Orange Order! if
they could have made this stick against the OO, they would have
done so. Instead, like all stories from Northern Ireland, it fades into
a horrible suffocating silence - like so many deaths in Northern
Ireland.
Incidentally, as a Protestant, i really do abhor the OO. I find them
acutely embarrassing. If tese deaths had been their fault, iwould
have been the first to insist upon the Govt. proscribing them. But it
really seems to be an horrific coincidence.
Northern Irish and irish history is all too full of these.
>
> Look at the ordeal of the Hamill family in Portadown and the almost daily
> taunts they are forced to endure by loyalists who mimic their son and
> brother getting kicked to death in the centre of the town.
Or the ordeal of Protestant families who've had family members
gunned down on their doorsteps by IRA thugs. This happened to
relatives of mine. But, you see, Elizabeth, we can each point to
injustices visited upon "our" side by the other. And it gets us
nowhere. I really wish I could believe Gerry Adams was now a
genuinely peaceful man, but i cannot as long as SF/IRA hold on to
their weapons of murder.
I dare to hope all the misery and agony on both sides is over
forever, but all of us in Northern Ireland have been here before.
hence our cynicism.
Though, and this is said half seriously, half tongue in cheek, just
what side you could be on, Elizabeth, not being Irish...!!
> Nor can she quite get her head round the fact that Catholics aren't
> welcome in some places or that they can't walk around the centre of some
> towns at night.
And as a Protestant there are places in Belfast where I wouldn't
dare show my face for fear of catholic gangland thugs in the pay of
SF/IRA!! You see? It's as I said above...!
>
> These, as Irish News readers know, are the daily realities of being a
> Catholic in some parts of the north.
And the realities of being a Protestant, especially on the border
where you face Bosnian style ethnic cleansing? This really
happens to protestant farmers - a threat of "get out or you're dead."
Does this get mentioned? I guess not!!
> Far too many people in the comfortable parts of Dublin simply refuse to
> believe that bigotry, discrimination and naked sectarianism exists in the
> north ... preferring to claim that it is all some republican plot.
Well, in the late 1990's, it IS a Republican plot!! As soon as the
British can respectably get the hell out they will!! If you'd been
talking in the late 60's/early 70's, fair enough. As for Dubliners
turning a blind eye, why shouldn't they? If I could get away from
the unpleasant realities of Northern Ireland, then I would!
Protestant AND Catholic middle classes in the plusher parts of
Belfast do the same!
Incidentally, there is a joke here in Northern Ireland that when the
UK and Irish governments meet, they don't argue about who should
have control of the north, but rather... who shouldn't get lumbered
with it!!
>
> It's just the same way that they claim nobody in the north found marches
> offensive until Sinn Fein started stirring things up.
But they didn't!! See above!! SF/IRA are just very talented
politicians. Talented, but evil.
>
> But, when they actually spend some time north of the border, they realise
> bigotry is endemic.
>
On both sides.
> Maybe all of them should come north for a few months and get a real
> eye-opener.
Like you obviously did, Elizabeth? Did you visit working class
protestant area, when you were on SF/IRA's guided tour of the
"ghettos"? Did you see all sides of Northern Irish society? I doubt
it very much! I'm from Northern Ireland. Elizabeth clearly isn't!
> It's not only Ballymun that's a million miles from Dublin 4...
It's Elizabeth Platt, safe and seure in the good old U S of A!!
I've said it before and I will again. These sort of "Irish" Americans,
who glorify murderers simply fan the flames of a terrorism that they
will never be a part of. But that we have to live with.
Still, Elizabeth, you like U2, so we have that in common. Next
time you're in Belfast look me up, and I'll show you some places
you've never seen!
"And it's true you (sic.) are immune, when fact is fiction, and TV a
reality!"
In the name of love.
Stephen R. McBride
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.0b2 on Tue Sep 22 1998 - 11:24:17 PDT