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Amid all the furore, turmoil and uproar over the Whiterock
parade, one factor overlooked to a large degree was the fact
that the controversy over the traditional parade of Shankill
District No.9 did not just emerge from out of the blue.
To fully understand the reasons for the agitation over the
Whiterock parade, one has to go back as far as 1970, when
the IRA launched an unprovoked and armed attack on the Orangemen
as they emerged from Mayo Street on to the Springfield Road.
Since then there has been a continuous propaganda attack
each year against the parade, and this resulted in the access
from the Shankill to the Springfield being changed four times.
In the end, the Orangemen were left with only one street
to exit on to the Springfield Road - Workman Avenue - and
even this did not placate the militant republicans.
So-called 'ethnic cleansing' of Protestants on the Springfield
Road - an ugly term - may have cleared most Protestant families
from the Springfield Road, but the upper part of this road
is still predominately Protestant.
A small portion of the disputed section may be Roman Catholic,
but there are only a few families, and the length of road
involved is only about 100 yards.
However, we know from previous experience elsewhere that
this is enough to spark off republican violence and agitation.
We must not forget the speech reported by a prominent Sinn
Fein-IRA politician at a place called Athy in the Irish Republic.
In this speech, the politician revealed that the planning
to prevent Portadown Orangemen from walking from Drumcree
Parish Church along their traditional Garvaghy Road route
took three years.
In other words, this anti-Orange project by Sinn Fein-IRA
was no spontaneous affair. It was planned with ruthless professionalism
and carried through with the same brutal efficiency.
It only worked, of course, because the Government opted to
bow to extreme violence by republicans, and to use the resources
of the State to prevent the Orangemen from walking peacefully
along the traditional route.
Victory for lawlessness and brute force in Portadown encouraged
the republicans to go for broke and to target a whole series
of Orange parades across Northern Ireland.
Dunloy and Ormeau Road resulted in the same surrender to
violence, and appeasement of republicans by the authorities
and the loss of traditional routes to Orangemen.
Emboldened and encouraged by their campaign, the republicans
have since carried out the same tactics at the 'Tour of the
North' parade in North Belfast, the return parade at Ardoyne
shops on the 'Twelfth', and now the Whiterock parade.
There have been instances elsewhere, not least in Lurgan,
where the members of the Royal Black Institution have been
denied the right to walk to the railway station on July 13
to board their train for Bangor.
This followed a dreadful attack on the train a year ago when
petrol bombs and other missiles were thrown at the Kilwilkie
estate.
In Belfast, there has even been pressure on the huge Orange
parade in East Belfast, with republicans causing agitation
at Albertbridge and lower Newtownards Roads.
In the great Protestant stronghold of Ballymena in County
Antrim, there was also an effort to have the route of the
annual mini-12th altered at a part of north Ballymena where
ethnic cleansing has been prevalent.
One cannot condone the violence which erupted at Whiterock,
and the Orange cause would have been much better served if
a quiet, dignified and peaceful protest had been allowed to
go ahead, as planned, at Woodvale Park.
But to understand the palpable anger and frustration which
has led to the Whiterock outbreak, it is necessary to bear
in mind the history of recent attacks on Orange parades.
Ulster Unionist leader Sir Reg Empey put it well when he
made it clear that any long-term solution to the present political
impasse will only be possible when the parading issue is settled.
Northern Ireland cannot afford this annual uproar and trouble
which arises each year over so-caled contentious routes. But
the plain fact is that the fault lies entirely with Sinn Fein-IRA
and so-called 'concerned residents' groups.
If a real and lasting solution is to be found to the parading
issue, then these organisations need to call off their campaign
of agitation and accept that Orangemen have the right to march
peacefully and in a dignified manner to witness for their
culture, their Order, and their Protestant faith.
The Parades Commission and its role also needs to be dealt
with, and that is an issue for the Government to deal with.
Orangemen have been under attack from the republicans since
the mid-1980s when the agitation over the Obins Street parade
in Portadown began.
Enough is enough, and it is time for the republican movement,
if it is sincere in its assertion that it respects Unionist
and Protestant culture and rights, to abandon this most divisive
of propaganda campaigns.
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