At 8/13/04 09:31 PM, D0GMA wrote:
At 8/13/04 08:41 PM, Eldarion wrote:
Anyway, that's my view on that. (I am not a die-hard Republican, but it angers me that Protestants insist on marching through Nationalist areas, knowing that they are provoking and agitating the local residents of the areas they march through.)
Any thoughts or comments anyone?
Personally, I have exactly zero issue with marches. What is an Orange march after all? It's just a parade of people celebrating their Protestant heritage. What happens on St. P's? There's a parade, which is just a bunch of marching people wearing green
Yeah, I see your point. It was late and I was tired, and went off on a bit of a rant.
celebrating their Irish (sometimes imaginary) heritage.
Oh, that happens all the time, especially in America. A lot of them don't know anything about Ireland. I remember watching archive footage of a demonstration in America to give the IRA hungerstrikers what they wanted (in the early '80's), and one of the US women demonstrating who was interviewed didn't know who Bobby Sands was. (leader of the hungerstrikers in the prison)
My stance on the Orange Lodges' choice of routes is a bit more complex.
The understandable desire to follow a historic path needs to be counterbalanced against the history of taking that path. The old marches used to end in Catholic districts so that Orangemen could hand out some beatings and rapes. That they now merely go through is an improvement, but people do so enjoy holding grudges ...
I think the whole violence around marching has died down over the past few years in the North. OK, this year's 12th saw a return to the violence of Drumcree in 1998, but it was on a much smaller scale.
Quite frankly, if I read another story about UDA hoods driving people out of their homes, or dissident republicans kneecapping someone, or 'revelations' that the RUC were involved in the murders of Catholics, I just get bored, because I've heard it all before.
Shameless atrocities have been commited by both the IRA and the British government where I live. But that's all in the past now, and I think peace truly is the way forward.
My little rant about Orange marches aside, I could really care less. It all looks a bit silly to me. There was a gay pride march recently in Belfast, and Unionists were fuming about it. But I can't see how parading around in a sash, twirling a baton is any different, can you? Hehe.