Republican News · Thursday 10 June
1999
Out of Order
The Orange Order and loyalist violence
By Laura Friel
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Loyalist victim Elizabeth O'Neill
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It's grotesque. Speaking after attending a service at Drumcree Church,
leading Portadown Orangeman David Jones repeats the now well honed denials
of the Loyal Orders. ``As far as we are concerned there is no link,'' his
homily concludes. It is just a few short hours before the funeral of
Elizabeth O'Neill is due to take place in Portadown, but if David Jones
feels any kind of remorse he doesn't show it, all we get is the ritual
washing of Orange hands. ``We totally condemn any attack of that nature and
if anyone misguidedly thinks that they are in some way helping the protest
at Drumcree, then they aren't,'' says Jones.
A resident in the predominantly loyalist Corcrain district, Elizabeth
O'Neill lived little more than a stone's throw from the nationalist estate
around the Garvaghy Road. The Corcrain Road runs parallel with Obins Street
and forms part of the main route for Orange marches to Drumcree Church. For
over a year now Catholics living near the Corcrain Road have endured almost
nightly intimidation from Orange supporters engaging in illegal protests
around the interface of the Garvaghy Road area. Since last July 18 families
have been forced to flee following loyalist intimidation, including petrol
and pipe bomb attacks on their homes.
In Craigwell Avenue, a minor slip road between Obins Street and Corcrain
Road, 12 out of 32 families have been intimidated out by loyalists. In
September 1998, RUC officer Frankie O'Reilly died after he was struck by a
blast bomb thrown by Orange supporters intent on attacking Catholic homes
along Craigwell Avenue. Tragically, other fatalities come as no surprise.
Given the level of sectarian intimidation meted out against the Catholic
community which has accompanied the Orange Order's insistence of their
right to march down Garvaghy Road, the only surprise lies in the fact that
more people haven't been killed.
At the height of the Drumcree standoff last year, within a 48-hour period,
73 Catholic homes and 71 Catholic-owned businesses were attacked by
protesting Orange supporters. The attacks culminated in the deaths of the
Quinn children, three little boys who screamed as they died trapped in
their petrol-bombed home. In the last year, over 150 Catholic families
living in predominantly loyalist estates have had their homes fire bombed.
According to official government statistics, over 1,350 families have been
forced to flee their homes because of intimidation. And still David Jones
stands in front of the cameras to deny any link.
Elizabeth O'Neill is the latest of ten people whose deaths have been
directly linked to the Orange Order's protest at Drumcree - a 59-year-old
Protestant mother and grandmother who had lived with her family in the
predominantly loyalist Corcrain estate for over 36 years. The fact that her
husband Joseph was a Catholic was sufficient for the O'Neill family to be
targeted. Fatalities arising out of the Drumcree protest include Michael
McGoldrick, a Catholic taxi driver shot dead in at the height of the
Drumcree standoff of July 1996. A random sectarian murder, his death was
ordered by loyalist killer and prominent Drumcree protester Billy Wright.
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Grand Master Robert Saulters insists that Portadown Orangemen have an
``absolute right'' to parade along the contentious route... Mr Watson [County
Grand Master of Armagh] also confirmed that the Grand Lodge was backing
calls for a public inquiry into the death of LVF leader Billy Wright
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Derry Journal, 4 June 1999.
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As tensions rose in Portadown during the run up to the Orange marching
season, Robert Hamill was kicked to death by a loyalist mob in the town
centre in April 1997 and Bernadette Martin was shot dead at her Protestant
boyfriend's home in July 1997. By this time Billy Wright, expelled from the
UVF, had organised his own loyalist terror group. Based initially in
Portadown, the LVF was later used as a cover for other loyalist groupings
to carry out a series of sectarian murders throughout the Six Counties. A
year later, Adrian Lamph, a Catholic council worker from the Garvaghy Road
estate, was shot dead in April 1998 as it became clear that the Parades
Commission would reroute the Orange Order's 5 July parade away from the
nationalist Garvaghy Road.
The three Quinn children died in a petrol bomb attack on their Carnany
estate home, Ballymoney in July 1998. The children had attended an Eleventh
night bonfire on the predominantly loyalist estate where they lived just
hours before the fatal attack on their home. News of the triple murder and
public acknowledgement by Orange Chaplain Reverend Bingham that their
deaths were a direct consequence of the Drumcree protest curtailed plans
for a mass convergence of Orangemen at Drumcree on the Twelfth last year.
Bingham was later heckled by Spirit of Drumcree leader Joel Patten and was
thrown into a ditch by Orangemen enraged by his questioning of the Drumcree
standoff after the Quinn children's deaths.
Elizabeth O'Neill's coffin passes loyalist graffitti in Portadown, the currently the cockpit of the nationalist nightmare in the Six Counties
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During Orange protests, which have continued almost nightly around the
Garvaghy Road since July of last year, RUC officer Frankie O'Reilly died
after being struck on the head by a blast bomb thrown by an Orange
supporter in October 1998. In March of this year, Rosemary Nelson, a Lurgan
solicitor, died in a loyalist car bomb attack. It is widely believed that
she was targeted because of her high profile support of Garvaghy Road
residents. The latest victim, Elizabeth O'Neill, died in a pipe bomb attack
``aimed at destroying the talks to resolve Drumcree'', as Methodist Church
leader David Kerr acknowledged.
But the use of sectarian violence is by no means a recent departure for the
Orange Order. Indeed, its very foundation was rooted in the blood of its
Catholic victims. In 1795, a minor dispute escalated into what became known
by Orangemen as The battle of the Diamond, in which 40 Catholics were
killed. From this incident, the Orange Order was spawned. Speaking about
the activities of the Order in 1795, the Governor of Armagh told
magistrates: ``It is no secret that a persecution is now raging in this
country... the only crime is... the profession of the Roman Catholic faith.
A lawless band have constituted themselves judges..'' Throughout the 19th
century, annual Orange marches were accompanied by sectarian pogroms
against Catholic communities.
By the 20th century, partition consolidated the Orange Order as one of the
most significant power blocs in the Six Counties. Between the imposition of
partition in 1921 to the introduction of direct rule in 1972 all six
Stormont Prime Ministers were Orangemen and out of 95 Stormont MPs, 87
belonged to the Orange Order. Throughout this period anti-Catholic pogroms
continued to be associated with Orange parades. During one particular
Twelfth parade in July 1932, a returning Orange parade invaded a Catholic
enclave off Lancaster Street in Belfast. In the violence which ensued, nine
people were killed and 2,241 Catholics were driven from their homes.
In Portadown, the Orange citadel, links between Orangemen and loyalist
paramilitaries have remained particularly close. In a disputed march in
1972, masked loyalist paramilitaries lined Obins street as an Orange Parade
was pushed through. But the most recent expression of this was the close
association of Portadown UVF, later LVF, leader Billy Wright. Known as
``King Rat'', Billy Wright was a serial sectarian killer, known to be
responsible for at least 42 Catholic deaths since 1989.
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If we're not down [Garvaghy Road] by the fourth of July, then we're into a
very dangerous situation. Because then we are on a slippery slope towards
something possibly as serious as civil war....[and] the problem won't be at
Drumcree, it will be throughout the country
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Portadown Orange Order spokesperson David Jones speaking to the Boston
Herald, May 1999.
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In the first Drumcree standoff in 1995 Wright was active in organising
barricades in the Charles Street area of the town while the Orange brethren
confronted the RUC at the top of Garvaghy Road. In 1996, Wright played an
even more prominent role. David Trimble, Unionist Mid Ulster MP, held a
series of meetings with the loyalist gunman at Drumcree during the 1996
standoff as did members of the Portadown Orange Lodge. As an act of
solidarity with the Orange protest, Wright authorised the kidnapping and
murder of a Catholic taxi driver.
Following the murder of Michael McGoldrick, Wright was ordered to leave the
country by the Combined Loyalist Military Command, whose ceasefire Wright
had ignored. At a rally in support of Wright held in Portadown, he was
joined on the platform by Orange Grand Master Harold Gracey. Jailed for
intimidation in 1997, Wright continued to orchestrate sectarian attacks
from his prison cell before his own death in November 1997. Even after his
death and the orgy of LVF killings which followed, the Orange Order's
commitment to Billy Wright continues. Only last week, following a meeting
of the Grand Masters, the Order reiterated its call for a public inquiry
into Wright's death. In stark contrast, the Orange Order has never called
for an inquiry into any of the deaths associated with their Drumcree
protests.
It is against this backdrop that the nationalist residents of Garvaghy Road
have been faced with the bizarre accusation by the Orange Order of
supporting `ethnic cleansing' during proximity talks with ACAS mediator
Frank Blair, held in Belfast this week. In a statement read out to around
700 Orangemen after a service at Drumcree Church, the Orange delegation
accused Frank Blair of ``complete bias'' while ``noting with concern the
desire of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition to continue with their
policy of exclusivity''. The residents' document submitted during proximity
talks endorses ``the concept of ethnic cleansing'', the Orangemen reported.
Emerging from a meeting of Orange Order leaders held in Derry last week,
Grand Master Robert Saulters insisted that Orangemen had an absolute right
to march down the nationalist Garvaghy Road. ``We have a civil right to walk
down that road,'' said Saulters. Asked if the Order had an absolute right to
parade along the Garvaghy Road, the Orange leader replied, ``Yes, we do
believe in that.'' Day after day, Catholic families are facing loyalist
violence, from verbal abuse to physical attack, from petrol to pipe
bombings, sectarian intimidation to sectarian murder. Catholic homes,
Catholic business, Catholic Churches, Catholic schools have all come under
repeated loyalist attack. And yet in the twisted mindset of Orangeism,
challenging the Orange Order's ``absolute right'' to march through a
nationalist residential area is tantamount to ``ethnic cleansing''. Who do
you think you are kidding Mr Saulters?
unexploded loyalist pipe bomb of the sort that killed Elizabeth O'Neill
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DRUMCREE DEATH TOLL
Michael McGoldrick, shot dead July 1996.
Robert Hamill, kicked to death April 1997.
Bernadette Martin, shot dead July 1997.
Adrian Lamph, shot dead April 1998.
The Quinn children, petrol bombed July 1998.
Frankie O'Reilly blast bomb attack October 1998.
Rosemary Nelson, car bomb attack, March 1999.
Elizabeth O'Neill, pipe bomb attack, June 1999.
PIPE BOMB ATTACKS
- In the most serious of a series of pipe bomb attacks this week,
59-year-old Elizabeth O'Neill was killed when a pipe bomb was thrown
through the living room window of her home in the early hours of Saturday,
5 June. Her husband Joseph, who was watching television with his wife at
the time of the attack, escaped injury. The couple, a mixed marriage, had
lived in the predominantly loyalist Corcrain estate, Portadown for over 36
years.
- In a second attack in Portadown, a pipe bomb was thrown at a house close
to the O'Neill family's home. The device exploded in the garden. A woman,
teenage girl and 10-month-old baby escaped injury.
- In Hilltown, County Down, a pipe bomb attack shattered the windows of a
Catholic family's home. Joe Murnin was watching television on Saturday 5
June when the explosion rocked his house. The father of four had moments
before put his children upstairs to bed. This is the second attack on the
family. Six years ago Joe Murnin's mother was badly injured by a letter
bomb.
- In Twinbrook, on the outskirts of Belfast, families were forced to flee
after two pipe bombs were discovered lying in a grass play area beneath
Acacia Avenue flats. The devices were believed to have been thrown at the
wall of the flats in the early hours of Sunday morning but both failed to
explode. Local children had been playing close to the spot where the bombs
were discovered.
- Two pipe bombs were thrown at houses in the Catholic Short Strand on
Sunday night, 6 June. The bombs were thrown over walls at St. Matthew's
Court and Clandeboye Gardens. Neither device exploded.
- Catholic school children have been targeted by loyalists in Ballymena. A
pipe bomb was discovered outside the canteen of St. Mary's primary school
in Harryville on Monday, 7 June.
- A Catholic couple's home was petrol bombed on the Rathenraw Estate,
Antrim Town, on Monday morning, 7 June.
- The home of Sinn Féin Councillor James McCarry was attacked by loyalists
using ``some sort of pellet gun'' on Sunday, 6 June. This is the latest in a
series of attacks on the McCarry family home. The family narrowly escaped
injury when a pipe bomb was thrown through their living room window earlier
this year.
- A Catholic solicitor's office was attacked in Lisburn on Friday, 4 June.
The offices were broken into and the premises set alight. A pipe bomb and
LVF memorabilia was discovered during a raid on the home of a loyalist
caught at the scene.
- In Larne, a letter bomb addressed to a local man was intercepted
Wednesday, 9 June when a postal worker raised the alarm.
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