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Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
  Orange Standard

Support For Police

Article 4 ~ September 2006

Sections of the media and members of the 'great and the good' have been lecturing the political parties, especially the DUP, on the necessity of striking a deal before November 24, which will get the Assembly up and going again.

Prime Minister Tony Blair and his Republic of Ireland counterpart Bertie Ahern have been leaning on our politicians to reach agreement.

Easier said than done. With the best will in the world, how are true democrats expected to share power with members of a political party who refuse to support the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Policing is absolutely a key issue in all this, as it always has been. The famous Royal Ulster Constabulary was destroyed to appease nationalists, and the proud 'Royal' prefix consigned to history. Recruitment to the PSNI is geared to favour members of the minority Roman Catholic population.

Many suitable candidates for the Police Service, young men and women who would have made fine constables, have been rejected for no other reason than their Protestant religion. In no other country would such discrimination be countenanced, yet Unionists are expected to swallow this highly discriminatory state of affairs. Republicans talk about sharing power, but their tendency to hark back on past 'injustices' perceived to have been committed against the minority community, while conveniently overlooking the attacks carried out for so long against the Protestant population are ignored.

And pressure continues to be exerted against Protestant and Unionist areas in a way which gives the lie to talk about respecting other peoples' tradition. In recent weeks there have been more attacks on the Fountain Estate, the last remaining Protestant enclave on the west bank of Londonderry. Protestants in the County Londonderry town of Kilrea have been subjected to intimidation and physical attacks. And, of course there is the hardening of republican attitudes towards Orange parades, and refusal to contemplate Orangemen walking along Garvaghy Road or through Dunloy village again. All reasonable people, and people who want Northern Ireland to progress, long for the return of a devolved administration in Belfast. But the obstacles and the hurdles to be cleared if this is to be achieved - problems created by intransigent militant republicanism - cannot be ignored and put to the one side. There must be a genuine transformation of republican and nationalist attitudes if the climate for a lasting political deal is to be realised, and people must be prepared to face facts.

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