Wednesday 14 July 2010

Ardoyne Situation

So it has been a while since I posted anything here. Truth is, I've become rather fed up with everything. I want to discuss my opinions on the current trouble in Ardoyne. Firstly, I will discuss my opinion on the whole Orange Order, 11th/12th Nights and Orangefest.

The Bonfires of the 11th night, are completely unacceptable in a 21st Century society. I have blogged about this before so you can read that if you wish to know my opinions on the Bonfires.



On the Orange Orders own website it states that they "strenuously oppose the fatal errors and doctrines of the Church of Rome", and that they should "resist the ascendancy of that Church". This is blatant admission that the Orange Order are sectarian, in that they are antiCatholic. So, in this day and age where we are "Moving away from Sectarian divisions" in our City, the Belfast City council agrees to this farcical that is "Orangefest", trying to disguise this Sectarian bigotry as family fun. Then we have politicians claiming that it is a community event. Well, it clearly is not a community event. I would not be welcome at the "Festival" if I carried my tricolour, only if I carried a Union flag. So Orangefest is both antiCatholic and Loyalist only; It is not a family or community event.

So this leads me on to my opinions on the GARC's sit down protest.

I belief that the residents of the Ardoyne area are entitled to stage their protest, against this bigoted march through their area. The resident's of the area have staged their peaceful protest for the past few years, but what has it achieved? They still have not got dialogue with the Orange Order and the march still goes through their area. So this year I think it was right for the Residents to stage their sit down protest. Civil disobedience is a legal way of Protest and revolution. It was the soul solution to the downfall of Apartheid in South Africa. So at this I agree with the Protest. I think it was wrong for the police to remove the protesters by force, and completely unacceptable that they fired baton rounds.

However I can not give support to the constant riots. Many of these rioters are bored youths, without a political concept in their head. Not all of them, but many. I am sorry to say that I do not agree with the RSF opinion, that these people are defending their neighborhoods against British Police. These British Police would not have been there last night if not for the riots. Maybe on the 12th night you could use this argument, but not on the 13th Night. The 13th should be used to commemorate Martin Hurson who died after 46 days on the Hungerstrike.

I furthermore think that it is wrong for non residents to bus into the area to take advantage of the situation. If the people of the area called for Republicans to travel to their community in support then I myself would have gone, but they did not. This means, whether it was intentional or not, those that did travel Hijacked the protest, and marred the peaceful civil disobedience with violence.

At the end of the day do I condone the Loyalist, bigoted parades? No I do not. I believe there is no place in this society for this kind of contentious parading outside of their own areas. Do I condem the Residents sit down protest? No, I fully support their decision. Do I condem the youths rioting? No I do not. Society has failed these youths and they can not be completely condemned, though they must face responsibility. Do I condem the actions of those that are using these riots to their advantage? No, I do not agree with them but I have no right to condem them. My opinion is that all this trouble has done us great disadvantage.

The numbers of the Orange Order had reportedly fallen to 9000 across the occupied territory. That is a considerably lack of people in comparison to the years gone by. The lack of serious trouble over the past years has saw people lose interest and their numbers fall. This year will see a dramatic rise.

Beidh ár lá linn.