The Orange Order press conference in Belfast yesterday (Wednesday) might have been funny if the matter wasn't so serious.
That the Order is comprised of ordinary men unskilled in the fields of public relations and spin comes as no surprise – an observer would be hard pushed to identify one spokesman down through recent decades who has been able to argue the Orange case with charisma and reason. That's not because there aren't men of ability within the Order – it's simply that the entire message is unsustainable. If the House of Orange stumped up enough money to engage the services of Max Clifford and Alastair Campbell their problems would continue to grow because in this day and age it's becoming increasingly clear that an organisation whose entire ethos is based on division and separation has no future.
Of course, human beings have a basic right to gather in pursuit of shared interests, whether they're as harmless as butterfly collectors, trainspotters and flower arrangers, or whether they're as sinister and divisive as racist agitators or religious fanatics. The difficulty is that the Orange Order, by its very nature, demands high visibility, it is not content with playing tunes in a corrugated iron hut up the country or marching around a remote country graveyard, or even in streets where they are wanted. Which means that ordinary Orangemen often find themselves in the eye of the camera, and inevitably they fail abysmally.
Orange Order Grand Master Robert Saulters told yesterday's press conference that he didn't see any Orangemen taking part in violence, although some may have been "protecting themselves". Where he had been over the preceding four days is anybody's guess. Had he been in North or West Belfast he would have seen plenty of evidence that Orangemen were in the thick of the violence – even if he'd stayed at home watching television he'd have seen pictures that placed Orange Order members in the eye of the storm.
As if that wasn't bad enough, Mr Saulters – the most senior Orangeman in Ireland – said he regarded the Orange Order as "blameless" in relation to the violence of recent days. If that's the kind of attitude that the Orange Order brings to its open and transparent dealings with the public and the media, one dreads to think what they're saying to each other in the privacy of the Orange hall.
Mr Saulters continued: "The extent to which ordinary, decent and reasonable men have been goaded into behaving out of character by the authorities and their insistence on appeasing and rewarding nationalists at the expense of loyalists."
How Mr Saulters could describe the louts engaged in the violence as "ordinary, decent and reasonable men" only he can explain, but the outburst may serve a purpose if it gives the public at large a glimpse into the mindset that the Springfield residents, among others, have been confronted with.
Meanwhile, Belfast County Grand Master Dawson Bailie said he would "do nothing different" which is a chilling indication of the Orange Order's priorities. If walking a disputed stretch of road means ripping their beloved 'Ulster' to bits, then so be it.
Young people in nationalist districts of Belfast and beyond are to be congratulated for their refusal to be drawn into sectarian violence, despite the best attempts of loyalist mobs to ignite a tribal conflagration. It is important that that discipline continues in the days and weeks to come.
