Open Letter
from Congressman Peter King to the residents of the Garvaghy Road
I am writing to express my strongest support and admiration for
the courage you are demonstrating in the face of inexcusable
intimidation and coercion by the Orange Order.
You can also be sure that the overwhelming majority of Americans
of all religions support you as well - because your position is
right and just.
The Orange Order must recognise that it has the obligation to
enter into dialogue with the residents of any community through
which it desires to march. In entering this dialogue the Orange
Order must negotiate with the representatives selected by the
residents of the community. The Orange Order cannot have a veto
power over whom the residents select to be their representatives.
It is also essential that the British Army, the Royal Ulster
Constabulary and all British security forces protect and respect
the residents of the Garvaghy Road. The security forces can in no
way yield to intimidation from the Orange Order.
Yours in Solidarity,
Peter T. King
Member of US Congress
8 July 1998
Bigotry will rule
A chairde,
It is unfair to Protestants throughout the world to characterise
the Orange Order of British-occupied Ireland as a fraternal
Protestant organisation. Its anti-Catholic bigotry makes it
``Protestant'' only if one chooses to call the Ku Klux Klan a
fraternal Protestant organisation.
The chaos and anarchy overtaking British-occupied Ireland is
simply a result of the Orange Order's insistence on staging its
triumphalist marches through Catholic neighbourhoods where the
marchers are unwelcome.
It should be pointed out that the marching season has thus far
resulted in the fire-bombing of ten Catholic churches along with
the burning to death of three Catholic boys under the age of
eleven during a fire-bombing of their home.
Why do the members of the Orange Order insist upon marching
through Catholic neighbourhoods come hell or high water?
This is how Leon Uris, a renowned American Jewish author
explained the phenomenon in ``Ireland: A Terrible Beauty'' some
twenty years ago:
``To continue to intimidate and debase one third of their nation,
it is entirely necessary to live in the past.''
In the Republic of Ireland Catholics are not intimidating
Protestants with triumphalist parades. It should be obvious that
as long as Britain remains in Ireland's northern six counties
bigotry will rule - Good Friday accords to the contrary
notwithstanding.
William Gartland
USA
Ashamed to be Orange
Sir,
I am a 62 year old American of Irish extraction.
My grandfather taught me to be proud of the fact that I was an
Orangeman. When I was a child I would wear something Orange to
school on St Patrick's Day and endure the taunts of my school
mates for not wearing green. I would try to explain to them about
the battle of the Boyne and express my pride in my ancestry. I
continued to do so almost up until the present date.
I have long been ashamed of the rantings of the Rev. Paisley but
I tried to ignore him as being the bigoted equivalent of an
American leader of the Ku Klux Klan. But the recent stupid
demonstrations by the Orangeman and their taunting attempt to
march into a Catholic area, topped off by the murder of the three
Catholic brothers ended it for me.
I am now ashamed beyond measure. Never again, until my Protestant
kinsmen in Northern Ireland come to their senses, will I mention
my ancestry. Never again will I wear Orange until peace comes to
Northern Ireland.
Michael Connolly
Dudley Edwards an apologist for bigotry
A chairde,
As I sat in the bustling community centre of Portadown's Garvaghy
Road this morning, it was with utter disbelief and frustration
that I and many local people read Ruth Dudley Edwards latest
diatribe against this besieged and beleagured community.
Writing from the ivory tower of Druncree loyalist encampment
overlooking this estate, she obviously views the situation
through orange tinted glasses. She demonizes people like Breandán
Mac Cionnaith who have become voices of the voiceless in this
terrorised estate. In a somersault of logic, she describes her
brethren friends as being ``non-sectarian'', ``refusing to yield to
intimidation'' and ``facing dangers few in the Republic could dream
of''. If she hasn't started to wear a sash then maybe she ought to
take a walk a few hundred yards from the media scrum at Drumcree
churchyard into the Garvaghy estate which has been under complete
siege for over a week now. Then she would know all about ``danger''
and ``intimidation''.
A frightened working class community who have been living on
strong coffee and adrenaline for a week or more. A people unable
to sleep due to low-flying helicopters, all-night lambeg drumming
and fear of neither knowing the day nor the hour when their
neighbourhood may experience a military invasion and loyalist
assault, as happened in 1996 and 1997. A security ring of steel
has turned the estate into one large prison. This morning
womenwere prevented from going to work and children due to be
sent on a summer project to the US were turned back at the
checkpoints.
Food is becoming scarcer in the local shops, people have been
prevented from entering the town centre (which for Catholics is a
virtual no-go area anyway), and already groups of loyalists have
managed to breach the security cordon and have terrorised
catholics in Ballyoran at the top of the Garvaghy Road.
Would it be too much to ask of Ms Dudley Edwards and her
neo-loyalist friends in the south to lay down their poison pens,
come out of their ivory towers and call a permanent ceasefire to
their mean spirited campaign against vulnerable nationalist
communities? I won't be holding my breath!
Fionntán O Súilleabháin
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