Republicans can speed up the process of a united Ireland by putting the boot in the Black!
When the 2010 loyalist marching season kicks off, nationalists should go head to head with the Royal Black Institution, the Protestant Loyal Orders' senior member.
If nationalists can 'Break the Black', they will sever the political spinal cord which binds middle class religious Protestantism to the various Unionist parties.
To do this, every republican needs to digest the best piece of anti-Protestant propaganda since the notorious Proclamation of the 1916 Easter Rising.
It's a book entitled Inside the Royal Black Institution by author Paul Malcomson, a former member of the Orange Order, Black Order and Royal Arch Purple Order.
Since the 1980s, republicans have largely targeted Orange parades, forcing the Order to re-model itself as an Orangefest community organisation.
This has caused a massive split between trendy festival modernisers and fundamentalist hardliners in the Orange Reformation movement.
But to really back Unionism into a political corner, republicanism needs to outgun Northern Protestantism's underlying backbone – the Black.
There's no use republicans trying to portray the Black as another Protestant version of the Ku Klux Klan. That was the tactic they successfully used against the Orange.
Because of the Black's even closer ties with Protestant churches, Klan comparisons will only get the Black's heckles up and rally Protestant opinion behind it.
Instead, they need to recite the claims made by Malcomson that the Black is a Masonic-style, anti-Christian movement which has more in common with witchcraft and devil worship than the Bible which the Black boasts it defends.
Malcomson does a detailed analysis of the 11 'degrees' which a Black member must take to become a fully qualified Sir Knight.
Reading his work will give every nationalist all the information at their fingertips to brand the Black as a sinister satanic cult.
Malcomson claims to publicly unmask Black mysteries, secrets and rites for the first time in history.
His killer punch comes in the line: "Any Christian owning such regalia should destroy them."
For republicans, this book is a God send. For any sane Protestant, especially those in the Black, this book is a load of deeply offensive balls.
I was in the Black for two decades. I left, not for any Biblical reasons, but because I needed time to care for my severely autistic son.
As a journalist, I covered many Black ceremonies, reported on numerous traditional Black Saturday August parades, and met countless Sir Knights from across the globe including Togo, Ghana, Canada and New Zealand – but there was no sign of satan!
Getting my own 11th degree, known as the Red Cross, was one of the most Christian rites I have ever attended. My father served a three-year term as the Black's Assistant Sovereign Grand Master.
Our family is steeped in the Black – and none of us are devil worshippers!
Malcomson claims he was a member of the Black. I don't know what Black he was in, but his book presents a totally different organisation to the Christian movement I belonged to.
For republicans determined to gain an electoral advantage by manipulating the Black into the same corner as the Orange, they should file Malcomson's easy-to-read book under M – for Must Memorise.
I would prefer to file it in my study under T – that's T for Total Crap.
Still, I look on the bright side of Malcomson's book. If there are power cuts this winter, at least I have something substantial to light the fire with.
