Young Man's Fancy

Ah, springtime, and a young man's fancy turns to thoughts of ... marching? Yes indeed, another marching season is approaching and nothing has changed.

Leaders of the loyal orders will not talk to any nationalist group about being a bit more courteous in their choice of marching venues. No, not when it's their glorious 'culture' being disrespected. They want to send their parades and drums down the streets of Catholic neighborhoods, what with their 'culture' consisting entirely of rubbing the noses of the downtrodden into their defeat four hundred years ago. We'll show you who's boss around here, their beating drums declare. Some culture to be proud of.

Trying to avert the violence that has marked marching seasons for decades, the powers that be set up a Parades Commission to regulate the routes. Well, the loyal orders won't deal with them either, because all the Parades Commission wants to do is keep them from marching down the street of Catholic neighborhoods, and there's that 'culture' thing again.

And it's all the fault of the republicans, too, by the by. As reported in today's Irish Times:

William Long, head of the Royal Black Institution, said he could not "in conscience" talk to republicans who endorsed violence. David McConaghie of the Independent Orange Order went further. "The Orange Order, during the course of the Troubles, had 310 members murdered. In July last year, when the IRA stood down, it said that the campaign was entirely legitimate."

This failure to apologize for "this slaughter" deserved to be utterly condemned, he added.

What does the Independent Monitoring Commission know about anything? They say that all the violence and crime is being done by loyalist gangs, but that would mean that the IRA really has renounced the armed struggle and the problem lies with the loyalists. That's disrespecting their 'culture', surely?

Funny, how everyone else in the world sees sectarianism and outright bigotry and they see their 'culture.' While they're out there all summer long, marching from one end of the Six Counties to the other, they don't seem to notice that their little corner of the empire is falling so far behind both Ireland and England that they're little more than a welfare state, dependent on London's handouts. Not much of a victory in the end.