Violence and controversial parades aren't new to the North. The Lower
Ormeau, Drumcree, Whiterock, and Ardoyne have witnessed scenes far more
serious than Dublin experienced. Suzanne Breen, Northern Editor, asked five
Northern march veterans how they viewed the trouble in Dublin.
Jimmy Creighton, Shankill community activist:
"Republicans normally knock the shit out of the 'occupied six counties' and
get the British government to foot the bill. Now, they're doing it to their
own beloved country at the expense of the Irish tax-payer.
"Without the gardai on Saturday, there would have been mass murder. I hate
to think what republicans would have done to our ones.
"It wasn't ordinary wee layabouts who caused the trouble; it was Sinn
Féin/IRA. I've seen the same in flashpoint areas all over Belfast. At last,
the decent people of the South see them in their true colours too.
"Those people will be very angry that the good name of Dublin has been
shamed across the world. They've made a success of their country down there
and created a quare number of jobs, but they're not as cosmopolitan as they
think.
"They beat up an Asian during the trouble. Did they think he was an
Orangeman? Republicans are always telling loyalists to forget the past.
Protesting about a march past the GPO hardly shows they're prepared to let
go off history."
Brian Kingston, Belfast Orangeman, took part in the Dublin parade to
commemorate victims:
"At least there were no blast bombs in Dublin. Republicans have thrown those
at police during loyalist parades here. In Ardoyne, marchers' heads were
split open, so I suppose we were lucky last weekend.
"In terms of injuries caused and property damaged, the rioting was
amateurish by Northern standards. Still, it wasn't nice.
"Had the rioters been smart, they wouldn't have started until we set off.
They could have claimed a bandsman acted offensively or something. But they
began before we even moved (from Parnell Square North) so they can't use
their traditional excuse – nationalists were only responding to loyalist
provocation.
"It's been said if we'd restricted ourselves to meeting Southern
politicians, not tried to march with bands or Union Jacks, that would have
been acceptable. They want tame Protestants, ones who hide their
Britishness. Qualified freedom of expression isn't freedom of expression at
all.
"The rioting doesn't make the Queen visiting Dublin less likely. The
protestors have shot their bolt. They proved themselves a mixture of drunks,
looters, and intolerant republicans. The majority of people down South want
nothing to do with them."
Sean McCaughey, Lower Ormeau Road resident:
"The rioting might be dramatic to Dublin people but Northern nationalists
have put up with far worse. Orange marches have been associated with
violence since time began.
"Loyalists have killed 57 Lower Ormeau residents. We have endless Orange
parades in Belfast every summer. Loyalists shot dead five people in the
bookies on this road. After that, Orangemen taunted us with five-fingered
gestures.
"The comfortable and well-off crowd down South – Michael McDowell and the
rest of them – thought they could force this parade through but the ordinary
citizens rebelled.
"No-one wants to see violence on the streets but it was understandable.
It wasn't an act of solidarity with the North, it was just instinctive
opposition to a gang of right-wing supremacists.
"The Dublin government should no longer expect Northern nationalists to
tolerate similar parades. This area has been put under 48-hour military
curfew to force marches through.
"The Orangemen's attitude to us is 'We can walk all over you whenever we
want'. If they're not allowed up O'Connell Street playing the sash, why
should they get away with it in Belfast?"
Anthony McIntyre, writer and former IRA prisoner, grew up in the Lower
Ormeau:
"The Dublin rioters were one bunch of fascists stopping another bunch of
fascists from marching. Republicanism was once about putting the Brits out
of Ireland. It's been reduced to preventing a bunch of eejits parading in
O'Connell Street.
"So what if they marched by the GPO? We must abandon this idea of having
shrines which are defiled if someone 'profane' passes by. Isn't the GPO more
defiled by being beside McDonalds, banks which rip people off, and that
stupid spire outside, like a giant heroin needle?
"As a teenager, I was involved in hand-to-hand fighting with the RUC to stop
Orange marches in the Lower Ormeau. If loyalists tried to parade in
Ballymurphy, where I live now, I'd resist.
"Marching through residential areas is triumphalist. It disrupts people's
daily lives. But why defend O'Connell Street? There are no houses on it and
the rich own it.
"Republican heroes are the H-Block hunger-strikers, not the thugs who
dragged an Asian from a Centra shop and beat him. The rioters were so
astute they've managed, for the first time ever, to make Orange bigots look
like victims.
David Jones, secretary of Portadown District Orange lodge:
"Dublin is always being hailed as a modern, progressive place, not full of
'bigots' like Portadown. Well, Dublin didn't look so great last weekend.
They might be liberal about gays rights down there – gay parades aren't
stopped or attacked – but Orangemen and IRA victims are entirely different.
"It wasn't a one-off. An Orange march in Dawson Street had to be cancelled
10 years ago. I thought republicans had matured. I expected a few shouts of
'Go home!' at marchers but nothing more.
"The violence has big implications in Portadown. We're constantly told we
can secure a parade from Drumcree only by talking to Garvaghy Road
residents.
"The Dublin march organisers talked to everybody they were told to. They got
the go ahead from gardai and the Government, and none of the businesses in
O'Connell Street objected. Yet the parade didn't happen. So even when
loyalist marchers open dialogue and do everything by the book, they still
can't win.
"Sinn Féin said its supporters weren't involved and blamed dissidents. If
dissident republicans hold that much power, there's no point in Portadown
Orangemen holding talks with Garvaghy residents who, it now seems, wouldn't
be able to deliver on any agreement."
