Post by leeside on Oct 12, 2010 11:02:56 GMT
13 July 1999
THE SIGHT of small boys wearing sashes and bowler hats, the traditional symbols of Protestant bigotry, in yesterday's Orange Order parades, makes a depressing spectacle. Bigotry should not be a cause for celebration or a family day out. However, both in Ulster and Scotland, deep-rooted religious and tribal intolerance masquerades as a cradle-to-grave cultural festival on "The Twelfth" of July each year.
These marches are a far cry from the May Day parades which grace dozens of village high streets. Instead of celebrating a happy, inclusive event such as the coming of spring, yesterday's triumphal parades commemorated the bloody defeat of the Stuart cause at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Since the Orange Order was formed a century later, its marches symbolise the burning racial and religious divisions between the Protestant British and Catholic Irish. Orangemen cannot attend Catholic religious services. If they marry a Catholic, they must leave the Order. The agenda is separatism. As long as the Order continues to march, these divisions will smoulder.
This is one of the factors that makes the peace process in Northern Ireland so difficult. The Orangemen have shown themselves to be extremely unlikely to abandon their marches. And their influence runs deep. The Orange Order is strongly represented in the Ulster Unionist party, and David Trimble is a member. But he himself has faced criticism from its extreme ranks for breaking the rules and attending a Catholic service - even if it was the funeral of a victim of a bombing. Above all, by marching with their young sons past the approving crowds lining the streets, the Orangemen are ensuring that the next generation will march on, and will grow into the same values. What is fancy-dress to the boy, will be bigotry in the man. And this is the real challenge for the peace process.
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/leading-article-breeding-bigotry-into-the-next-generation-1106047.html
THE SIGHT of small boys wearing sashes and bowler hats, the traditional symbols of Protestant bigotry, in yesterday's Orange Order parades, makes a depressing spectacle. Bigotry should not be a cause for celebration or a family day out. However, both in Ulster and Scotland, deep-rooted religious and tribal intolerance masquerades as a cradle-to-grave cultural festival on "The Twelfth" of July each year.
These marches are a far cry from the May Day parades which grace dozens of village high streets. Instead of celebrating a happy, inclusive event such as the coming of spring, yesterday's triumphal parades commemorated the bloody defeat of the Stuart cause at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. Since the Orange Order was formed a century later, its marches symbolise the burning racial and religious divisions between the Protestant British and Catholic Irish. Orangemen cannot attend Catholic religious services. If they marry a Catholic, they must leave the Order. The agenda is separatism. As long as the Order continues to march, these divisions will smoulder.
This is one of the factors that makes the peace process in Northern Ireland so difficult. The Orangemen have shown themselves to be extremely unlikely to abandon their marches. And their influence runs deep. The Orange Order is strongly represented in the Ulster Unionist party, and David Trimble is a member. But he himself has faced criticism from its extreme ranks for breaking the rules and attending a Catholic service - even if it was the funeral of a victim of a bombing. Above all, by marching with their young sons past the approving crowds lining the streets, the Orangemen are ensuring that the next generation will march on, and will grow into the same values. What is fancy-dress to the boy, will be bigotry in the man. And this is the real challenge for the peace process.
www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/leading-article-breeding-bigotry-into-the-next-generation-1106047.html
