Two Orange Orders
A Chairde,
I would like to thank Ruth Dudley Edwards for enlightening me to the fact
that there are obviously two Orange Orders, one of them being the Order she
describes in her book, The Faithful Tribe. This being the misunderstood one
the one in which the wives and mothers of its members merry themselves
making tea and sandwiches, whilst joking of them ``playing silly buggers''.
The same one that but for the lack of better PR skills would no doubt be
loved by all.
This must of course be different from the other Orange Order, the
assiduously anti-Catholic one, the one which US State Senator Tom Hyden
compared to white supremacists in Mississippi in the 1960s in its treatment
of Portadown's Catholic nationalist community. The one with its
long-standing links with paramilitary loyalism, that had secret meetings
with LVF leader Billy Wright (Orangeman David Trimble included) at the
stand-off in Drumcree in 1996. The one that calls for an inquiry into his
death yet ignores the numerous murders and over 1,300 forced evacuations by
pro-Orange supporters.
I can only assume, also,that she must be enamoured by the other Orange
Order to the one that David Jones is a member of. For he is not at all
jovial when he threatens that if they are not down the Garvaghy Road by the
fourth of July, to symbolically stamp their domination on the Catholic
community, ``then we are on the slippery slope to something possibly as
serious as civil war.''
d he doesn't mention anything about tea and sandwiches either.
Denis O'Halloran
Lewisham.
A Chairde,
May I express my disgust at the begrudgery and downright sectarianism
displayed by your columnist, Laura Friel, in her recent article on the
Church of Ireland Synod, titled ``Sound and Fury''. For my part, I was
greatly encouraged by the deliberations of the Synod, particularly after
hearing extensive extracts of the contributions on Raidio Éireann. Here was
a church taking the deliberate and courageous step of acknowledging the
sectarian menace within its midst and providing a lead which I feel all the
Christian churches (and the political parties) might do well to follow. At
the very least, the Synod should be positively welcomed as a tús maith and
your columnist's snide dismissal of the event displays a depressing bigotry
on her own part.
Those of us who live alongside Church of Ireland communities understand the
role which the select vestry plays in the administration of individual
parishes and we ought to understand the difficult course that the Church of
Ireland has adopted in challenging sectarian bigotry while avoiding massive
defections, particularly within areas of Orange strength. Far from sitting
on their hands, delegates that I heard addressing the conference, including
several members of the hierarchy from northern dioceses, made thoughtful
and well-argued contributions to the debate.
But how does the organ of Irish republicanism respond? First of all by
questioning the resolve of the Church of Ireland to address the issue of
sectarianism through `decisive action' rather than what is sneeringly
referred to as `polite debate'. More then that, we are told that such
debate will be seen as `an abdication, not the exercise of moral
responsibility'.
`The niceties of theological debate will, Ms Friel informs us, `cut no ice
with a world which already views Drumcree as a carnival of sectarian
reaction'. In the mind of your reporter, internal dicscussion and debate
are a waste of time, undeserving of recognition. Reading the sub-text, she
believes that the Church of Ireland should travel a path that republicans
in their own discussions of the way forward would never countenence - the
diktat of a leadership oligarchy.
Towards the end of her article, Ms Friel writes: ``The Church of Ireland was
spawned in the same supremacist pond as the Orange Order and Ulster
Unionism.'' I can scarcely believe that such a gratuitously insulting remark
could have been allowed in your columns with editorial sanction and I can
only hope that the aformentioned diatribe slipped in without the editor's
knowledge. It is probably the most disgracefully sectarian remark ever to
appear in a newspaper representing the republican viewpoint. Laura Friel
should take the advice of one contributor to the Synod, who reminded
delegates that the battle against sectarianism begins by confronting the
inherited sectarianism within ourselves.
As for the Church of Ireland `breaking with its past', there is indeed much
in that past that is to be deplored, as there is in all churches, but let
us not forget that it was out of this community that some of the great
geniuses of the Irish nation emerged: Dean Swift,'Premium' Madden, Theobald
Wolfe Tone, Thomas Russell, Thomas Davis, William Smith O'Brien and many
more besides. For too many republicans, it appears that Irish history only
begins with partition and the institutionalising of sectarianism North and
South. For too many `republicans', lip-service is paid to the core
principle of our creed - non-sectarianism. I look forward to the day when
republicans begin to discuss the issue with the same honesty and openness
as has been displayed by the Synod of the Church of Ireland. And let he or
she that is without even a hint of bigotry cast the first stone.
Brian MacDomhnaill.
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