The spectre of 1974 looms large over the grey skies of Northern Ireland as loyalists and unionists conspire to thwart not only democracy but the freedom of speech and freedom of movement for those who want to get on with their lives.
They cannot and must not be allowed to win and those responsible for provoking and stoking the fires of hatred and sectarianism should not be allowed to escape their responsibilities or hide behind any cloak of representation.
It is sickening to hear mainstream unionist politicians 'excuse' the violence occurring on our streets. The violence that is occurring is as sinister a threat to the democratic process as the Provisional IRA campaign. Unionists who rightly attacked Sinn Féin 'spin meisters' for refusing to fully condemn IRA atrocities now stand similarly accused. The duplicity of unionism seems to know no bounds. They are either for law and order or against it. There can be no half way measures.
In the past loyalism has tried and succeeded in thwarting the will of the Irish people, most notably 1974. They did so through thuggery, threats and with the active collaboration of the then RUC. Today things have changed. The RUC is no more. The UDR is no more and soon their successors the RIR will also be consigned to the history books.
The statelet that once oversaw systematic discrimination, sectarianism and gerrymandering has also gone.
The playing field has been levelled and the game is now on an equal footing. The fact that generations of Protestants have been fed a diet of monoculturalism that has misled their allegiance and created mistrust with their neighbours is a charge for which political unionism is guilty. For years unionist leaders have flirted dangerously with the lions among the loyalist paramilitaries in a way that would have been unacceptable for any mainstream nationalist politician.
But they got away with it. If this society is to move on that cannot happen again.
Surely the past 30 years should have proved to the wider unionist community that the working class Protestant community has been cynically used by their leadership as cannon fodder, who carry out acts at the behest of leaders who are tucked safely up in bed or who are diplomatically out of the country when street violence gets out of control. Now unionist politicians are proposing that their members withdraw from District Policing Partnerships as a protest against police handling of rioters in loyalist areas. What logic is there in this action when senior unionist politicians from both the DUP and UUP intend remaining on the main Northern Ireland Policing Board? Is this not another case of the 'indians' paying the price of withdrawing while the 'chiefs' remain in situ?
This 'partial and conditional' law and order approach by unionist leaders to disorder on the streets along with the nonsensical prospect of former terrorists becoming justice ministers suggests that any transfer of justice powers to devolved politicians should be put on hold until – to borrow an infamous phrase from a former unionist leader – "they are all house trained".
The loyalist violence on the streets has played right into the hands of the Provisional movement who at this time should be the real focus of all political and media attention. Only this current crop of unionists could snatch defeat from the jaws of victory over the IRA. The sad but true facts seem to suggest that pure and unadulterated sectarianism is at the base of the rationale that is clouding common sense and sound judgement within unionism. The intervention of well meaning clerics is misdirected. They should have confronted and faced down the seeds of sectarianism spawned at Drumcree which has festered into the uncompromising face of loyalism today. It seems as if everyone in mainstream unionism while regretting the use of violence seems to want to find excuses to justify the cause of it. The police are to blame. The Parades Commission is to blame. The government is to blame. The IRA is to blame. How about accepting responsibility for a change? The loyalists who are blocking the streets; attacking homes; damaging property and who are trying to intimidate the editorial staff of the Sunday World are fascist thugs who deserve nothing better than to be behind bars.
The mainstream unionist community should be the people leading the call for that to happen.
No-one in their right mind should be thinking about trying to buy them off financially or appeasing their thuggery with sociological hogwash talking about their alienation or disjointment from mainstream society. For once call it as it is and face it down.
