Importing bigotry
Deaglan O'Coileain knows who was responsible for the trouble when the
Apprentice Boys marched through Derry last Saturday
``Jesus, see the young fellas these days - they haven't a bloody clue
how to organise a riot!'' That was the verdict of one Derry veteran
(long since retired) about the events in Derry last Saturday. It was
this `rioting' which formed the focus of nearly all the news
bulletins on Saturday evening.
In fact, an uninvolved person could have been forgiven for believing
the well-rehearsed media tit-bits about how `nothing changes'.
Throughout the twenty-four hours before and after the Apprentice Boys
marches, there are elements of bizarre predictability.
For example, you can always depend on RUC personnel investing large
amounts of testosterone in `sterilising' nationalists from the city
centre. And while their grunts are using sledgehammers to crack nuts
(sometimes literally), the top brass are huddled-up trying to figure
out why things always go wrong when they are in charge.
Meanwhile, you can always depend on the Apprentice Boys performing
their quaint pre-Christmas extravaganza - a full afternoon sectarian
jamboree around that sacred monument, the cenotaph, in the Diamond.
Colourfully uniformed bands, bedecked with flags and banners
celebrating that great Unionist culture of support for the UDA and
UVF, regale the assembled media (there's no one else there!) with
such appropriate melodies as No Surrender and The Sash. They are
cheerily followed by thousands of public-minded, sash-clad,
sword-wielding gentlemen who generously give of their own time to
come from places as far away as Belfast, Glasgow and Liverpool.
d yes, you can always depend on young people who live in Derry to
be deeply offended at these two other certainties. So it was that I
dandered into the city centre on Saturday afternoon.
The Bogside Residents' Group had stated a week previously that they
would not be holding a protest, and the Parades Commission had made a
ruling to re-route one section of the Apprentice Boys march, but I
was still mindful of the media-inspired notion of `nothing ever
changing'.
The predictably mundane tension of early in the day was broken by the
laughter of onlookers as one hapless peeler had the humiliation of
circumnavigating the Diamond in a landrover that looked more like an
ice-cream van. It was hand-painted with white gloss with the word
Crimestoppers - or was it Gobstoppers - sprayed on top.
But as the thunderous march began to shudder down Bishop Street it
became clear that neither the RUC nor the Apprentice Boys were going
to disappoint me with any displays of unpredictable imagination.
altercation across landrovers between local youths and marchers
was the only excuse needed for the RUC to commence the bulldozing of
nationalists down Shipquay Street with batons, in spite of the
calming influence of a number of local people.
This led to a series of half-hearted spats throughout the afternoon
between youngsters armed with bottles and bricks, and the RUC armed
with batons and shields, which the media later coined a `mob riot'. A
number of commercial vehicles were stolen and one was burned.
As with last year, the town's business community have been quick to
lament their loss of trade on Saturday. Pub tycoon Garvan O'Doherty
is fond of describing this situation as one where the marchers march,
the police and the rioters riot, while the business community are
left to pick up the pieces.
Nice soundbite, but I couldn't help wondering as Mr O'Doherty stood
outside the Richmond Centre fixated at the sight of a few young
people throwing bottles at the RUC, that he was looking in the wrong
direction. The business community claims to want a `win-win'
situation in the interest of the whole city, yet no political party
(other than Sinn Fein) and no business person, has yet explained how
nationalists can get a `win' from an organisation who import
thousands to Derry twice a year, and then refuse to talk to local
groups about the appalling conduct of these interlopers.
It's just as well that the Bogside Residents Group didn't have a
presence in the city centre on Saturday. No doubt they - and
spokesperson Donncha MacNiallais in particular - would have borne the
ritual condemnation of all the `good' people of Derry, and Alistair
Simpson too.
In the end, this proved to be the one unpredictable and imaginative
element of Saturday's events which made me reassess the media view
that `nothing ever changes'. The BRG spent a month working to
establish a mutual accommodation with the Apprentice Boys. Some
people tried to isolate them; some tried to vilify them; and others,
as late as last Friday night, tried to pressurise them. The aim of
all these actions was simply to let the Apprentice Boys have their
way.
The BRG ensured by their absence that the blame for Saturday's
predictable events rests with those who know - the blind-bigots in
the RUC and the Apprentice Boys, and those self-interested,
short-sighted people in Derry's political and civic world.
The Apprentice Boys next cultural outing takes place in Portadown
just a few days after Christmas where they will be taking lessons
from those great Orange defenders of equality and respect - Portadown
District No.1. For those who want to know the long-term solution in
that town, it is the same as the one outlined by Donncha MacNiallais
in his home town last Friday - it's called `meaningful dialogue based
on mutual respect'.
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