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In every democratic society there is a responsibility to
accept certain fundamental rights including, freedom of speech,
freedom of religious beliefs, the right to live in peace,
freedom of assembly and the right of cultural expression.
But in today's Northern Ireland we find the Protestant culture
being at best ignored and at worst deliberately demonised.
Let's examine the case for freedom of assembly - the right
to proceed in a peaceable and orderly manner to and from the
place of assembly. This is a non-negotiable right. There can
be no question of one group of free citizens having to ask
permission from either another group of citizens or a self
appointed authority to walk the public highway.
Let's be honest about this: the militant republican activists
behind certain residents' groups who object to us parading
certain routes aren't really bothered about what road we walk.
They just want us to stop parading anywhere. Sadly this intolerance
is polluting civil society and hindering genuine peace building.
The Orange Institution has always been prepared to engage
with genuinely concerned nationalist residents. We are not,
and never will be, prepared to seek permission to exercise
our basic human right to peaceful assembly from groups acting
as a front for Sinn Fein/IRA.
If these so-called concerned residents can prove to us that
they're not aligned to, or supported by, hard-line republicans,
who over the past 35 years have murdered more than 1,500 people
including 300 Orangemen, then, of course, we would be prepared
to engage with them. The fact that the Parades Commission
seriously expects us to haggle over our human rights with
those who subscribe to, or support, a political party whose
military wing has slaughtered so many of our members just
proves the extent to which the commissioners have lost touch
with reality.
Objecting to routes we have walked for decades is simply
a cynical tactic by republicans in order to further a far
wider political agenda. They want to obliterate the traditions
and history of the Protestant community. How pathetic that
they lack so much confidence in themselves that they can't
spare us a few minutes of tolerance while we walk home!
Make no mistake about it: what they're doing is not nationalism,
it's fascism - the same sort of paranoid fascism that saw
Nazis imprisoning Polish Jews in the Warsaw ghetto during
the War. The same sort of paranoid fascism that made the apartheid
regime confine the blacks to the shanty towns of South Africa.
But what really staggers most members of the Institution
is why the authorities and the media can't see through these
tactics. They were appalled when the Roman Catholic children
of Holy Cross were unable to walk to school along what had
been deemed a Protestant road.
When it comes to democracy and justice - not to mention naked
sectarianism, - what's the difference between what happened
there and what's happening today when a group of Protestant
churchgoers is prevented from walking a road others have designated
for their own purposes.
The current law governing the parades that we hold so dear
is neither fair nor just and in administering that law the
Parades Commission continues to deny unreasonably and disproportionately
our human right to peaceful assembly. In essence the legislation
on parades makes a mockery of the right to cultural expression.
The law on parades is an ass. Rather than reduce tensions
as intended, the commissioners' determinations have simply
served to increase them. In short, the commission doesn't
work either in process or practice. It is damaged beyond repair
and it has to go. New faces, no matter how friendly will not
put right the hurt and injustice the Commission has caused.
We accept that Northern Ireland has changed since the Province
was established in 1921. Sadly our parades have become a political
issue since 1994, as republicans fought to justify their terrorist
campaign.
We also recognise that as a result of this, there is a need
for some kind of regulatory system to ensure quality of treatment
in all matters cultural and sporting for all communities.
However, the current system based on an emotional decision
of three human beings is seriously flawed and can never be
right. Let's also state here that we are not looking for special
privileges.
We don't want more than any other cultural group. What we
do want - and expect as citizens of a United Kingdom - is
a climate of true cultural diversity in Northern Ireland with
tolerance shown by all to all.
The current commissioners' term of office ends in November.
What will be their legacy? Division, increased sectarianism,
suspicion, intolerance, unnecessary violence, and anger.
If the Parades Commission stopped making non-contentious
parades contentious; if Sinn Fein/IRA stopped using parades
an an excuse to stir up community tensions; and if the British
Government stopped pursuing policies designed to marginalise
the unionist community then there would not be any reason
for street violence and we could resolve any differences in
a calm and neighbourly manner on a level playing field.
Our enemies ask: "Why don't you call off contentious
marches'. Nobody seriously believes, for example, that the
Notting Hill Carnival in West London should be called off
simply because there might be trouble.
They don't cancel football matches because rival fans might
attack each other. Should we ask the Chinese community in
London to call off their New Year festival because it causes
traffic and policing problems, or because some people don't
like fireworks and dragon dances!
The Parades Commission must accept that rather than providing
the solution on parading it has become the problem.
Throughout its miserable existence, this non-elected, unrepresentative
quango has managed consistently to make a difficult situation
even worse. This year's Whiterock determination was a major
setback for the peace process and simply pours petrol on the
tinder-dry relationships that currently exist on the interface
in North and West Belfast. If only we could say Whiterock
was the Parades Commission's only mistake; sadly though, the
reality is that the list of failures is long.
So what should we do as an Institution to guarantee the removal
of the Parades Commission and ensure our parades pass unhindered
and free from the threat of violence?
Over the last year the Grand Master's Parades Advisory Group
has been working tenaciously to develop the strategy and tactics.
We are currently compiling a newsletter which will be distributed
to lodges at the beginning of January setting out the facts
and answering many of the questions you have been asking.
So what is it that you, the members, can do? Quite simply,
parading is part of what we do and who we are. Each and every
one of us should have an opinion on how the Order goes forward
on this crucial issue. Ensure you make your opinions known
to your district representatives so they can feed them back
through Grand Lodge. Do your really want to continue with
things as they are at present?
Can you afford to be indifferent about parading? Are you
happy to lose more and more ground, more and more parades?
Northern Ireland requires a solution to the cultural apartheid
the Institution faces. We are prepared to play our part and
live up to our responsibilities. Nationalists have to decide
do they want a shared future or further division.
The challenges the Order faces are formidable, but they are
not insurmountable. It has taken several decades to get to
the situation we find ourselves in now on parading. Reversing
the trend won't happen over night - but it won't happen at
all unless Orangemen show patience, determination and commitment
to change things.
One of the issues that the Order and all its members need
to address is this:
- Why aren't Twelfth events more widely valued and promoted?
- Why aren't they regarded as enthusiastically as the Chinese
New Year festivals, Mardi Grass in New Orleans, the annual
carnival in Rio, or even the St. Patrick's Day parades in
Dublin and New York?
- What is the difference between our parades and all these
other cultural, historic, popular colourful and fun events?
The only difference is mindset - a churlish attitude on the
part of republicans in our province who have got it into their
heads that the only way to promote their culture and tradition
is to try and eradicate everybody else's.
A mindset among some journalists and politicians who believe
that celebrating Orange culture is somehow not politically
correct because it might upset those who have sought to impose
their will on the rest of us through years of murder, violence
and crime. So look out for the newsletter. Read it, digest
it, discuss it, and give us feedback. Ignore it at our peril.
And remember the words of Henry Ford -"Coming together
is a beginning; keeping together is a progress; working together
is success".
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