Murder, mayhem, the media and Drumcree
by Laura Friel
Speaking directly into camera, a visibly shocked Denis Murray,
BBC Ireland Correspondent, described the murder of the three
Quinn boys as ``racist''.
In the measured tone of the professional journalist, Murray, like
many of his colleagues, has reported hundreds, perhaps thousands
of ``sectarian attacks, sectarian shootings, sectarian killings''
but for him, the brutal slaying of three children who cried out
as they were burnt alive, was significantly different. For a
moment Denis Murray perceived sectarianism through the eyes of
Northern nationalists, momentarily he acknowledged their fear and
revulsion, perhaps for an instance he understood the significance
of Orangemen marching through beleaguered nationalist communities
like the Garvaghy and Ormeau Roads.
For over a week the media had colluded in portraying protesting
Orangemen at Drumcree and the besieged residents of the Garvaghy
Road as two sides of the same sectarian coin. It was a difficult
balancing act but many commentators met the challenge with gusto.
To create the appearance of equilibrium, mass intimidation by the
Orange Order had to be played down, Orange protests must be
described as ``peaceful'' and Orangemen identified as ``law
abiding'', loyalist violence must be depicted as peripheral,
separate and regrettable. ``The leaders of the Orange Order may be
militant in their demands... but they are, on the whole, peaceful
God fearing men, seemingly far removed from the thugs who have
hijacked their cause.''
Ed Moloney writing in the Sunday Tribune was more honest, ``The
Orange hierarchy continuously condemn the violence and urge only
peaceful protests, but everyone knows that's only for the sound
bites. Violence made the difference in 1996 and it will be the
crucial factor this time as well.''
On the other hand the role of residents on the Garvaghy Road, who
in reality only wanted to be left to pursue their daily lives in
peace, had to be played up. In most cases this simply collapsed
into marginalisation of the residents' position through the
vilification of their spokesperson Breandan MacCionnaith. An
editorial in the Daily Telegraph dismissed MacCionnaith as `` a
small town agitator with a criminal record.'' The Orange Order
wasn't holding the country to ransom, argued the Telegraph, but
Breandan MacCionniath, puffed up with importance by a ridiculous
ruling by the Parades Commission, was being allowed to thwart the
wishes of the British, Irish and American governments.
The Mail editorial went even further, ``some basic facts need
restating. The Orange Order may seem sectarian, bigoted and
splattered with yobs in sashes'' but the real enemy is the IRA.
The Mail deplored the fact that British troops were being
deployed against ``overwhelmingly law abiding people''(Orangemen)
while concessions were being made to ``former terrorist bombers
like Breandan MacCionnaith''.
In an article appearing in the Irish Times on Saturday, Deaglan
de Breadún, acknowledged the sectarian onslaught against northern
nationalists but concluded ``A bad week then, overall for
Protestant Ulster. A community with huge potential and much to
offer the world has, through the violence of some and the
obduracy of others, become almost a pariah in media terms,'' de
Breadun continues, ``meanwhile, nationalists - more politically
sophisticated, as always - have successfully maintained an image
of victimhood....with their greater media savvy and political
cohesion, the nationalists are well out in front.'' Exactly which
nationalists is de Breadun referring to? Is it the 107 Catholic
families who have been intimidated out of their homes, or the
Catholic owners of the 114 properties and businesses which have
been attacked and destroyed?
Meanwhile, as pointed out by Tom Collins of the Irish News, the
BBC was bending over backwards to avoid identifying a series of
Orange parades as `illegal' (which they were). Illegal parades by
Orangemen became ``impromptu'', marches which ended in rioting
became ``unofficial'' while the illegal blockade and mass
intimidation of the nationalist village of Dunloy was described
as ``peaceful''.
By mid week a consensus was emerging within the media, in the
wake of loyalist violence, the answer to the Drumcree stand-off
could be found in the residents allowing the Parades Commission's
decision in their favour to be set aside. In the last few years
the Garvaghy residents had endured mass loyalist intimidation,
brutal assaults by the RUC and now they were to be harangued into
submission by the media.
As the evidence that Orangeism and sectarian violence were
inextricably linked became overwhelming, a kind of journalistic
schizophrenia set in with descriptions of events on the ground
becoming increasingly at odds with the analysis offered. On the
back page of the Sunday Times, Vincent Kearney likened the
Drumcree standoff to a scene from Apocalypse Now. ``Every so
often,'' he wrote, ``the crowd sings a rousing chorus of the Orange
anthem, the Sash, followed by a rendition of the Billy Boys,
which includes the line `we're up to our necks in fenian blood'.
Up on the hillside, like a Greek chorus, thousands of loyalist
spectators munch crisps and burgers and enjoy the scenes below.
Some are horrified by the violence. Most cheer....'' Kearney
records one masked protester, ``You won't stop us on Monday
night,'' he shouts, ``then we'll kill you and the Fenian bastards
behind you.'' Yet, on the front page Kearney is back to the `two
sides of the same coin' analysis in which the `militancy' of the
Spirit of Drumcree leader Joel Patton is offset by the `lack of
compromise' by Breandan MacCionniath.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, with the deaths of three
small children, the media's analysis was rendered not only
untenable but obscenely so. The media smokescreen lifted,
momentarily exposing the nationalist nightmare for all to see.
When a prominent protagonist in the Drumcree stand-off, William
Bingham, the Orange Order County Armagh Chaplain, publicly posed
the question ``Where are we going?'', there seemed a glimmer of
light at the end of the tunnel. ``The verbal attack on people who
think differently than we do - is that Orangeism? If it is I
would have no part of it. The violence we have seen - if that is
Orangeism then many of us here would have no part of it.....After
last night's atrocious act, a 15-minute walk down the Garvaghy
Road by the Orange Order would be a very hollow victory, because
it would be in the shadow of three coffins of little boys,'' said
Bingham.
A moment's reflection by an Orange leader created sufficient
space for those whose moral courage is more tempered by political
expediency. David Trimble told the Orangemen of Portadown ``to
come down off the hill,'' Robin Eames reiterated, Orangemen
``should leave the entire Drumcree area''. Predictably Ian Paisley
remained in a state of denial. It had nothing to do with
Drumcree, Paisley insisted.
By Sunday lunchtime the old agenda was being resurrected. ``I've
two words to say to both sides,'' Seamus Mallon told John
Humphries of the BBC's ``On the Record'', ``Go home''. Where exactly
did the SDLP deputy imagine the Garvaghy Road residents were?
Meanwhile the BBC defended its decision to broadcast coverage of
Twelfth `Celebrations'. Dismissing nationalist viewers complaints
the BBC claimed ``a large number of people wanted and expected to
see the parades.'' On Crumlin Road an Orange march passing
nationalist residents holding black flags chanted ``three, nil,
three, nil''. No one was there to report it.
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