Hierarchy's belated Drumcree shame
BY FERN LANE
Church of Ireland Bishop Walter Empey told his congregation
in Dublin last Sunday that he, and his Church, had been deeply
shamed by the events surrounding Drumcree, carried out in the
name of Protestantism. But laudable as this criticism might be,
why wasn't he - and Robin Eames for that matter - equally voluble
last year when the Quinn brothers were burned in their beds in
the name of Protestantism? And why, as a matter of interest,
haven't they been thoroughly shamed by the endless years of
violence and hatred inspired by the ideology of Orangeism - all
in the name of Protestantism?
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The Orange Order was always exactly what it is now; the home of
baleful, right-wing extremists ready to covertly exploit the
muscle of a bunch of witless, willing fools to inflict fear and
harm on the nationalist community
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This faux-shock of the Church of Ireland, together with that of
the Secretary of State and `liberal' unionism, at the readiness
of the Orangemen to encourage and even participate in violence,
and their collective `Gosh, where did they come from?' response
to the UDA visitation at Portadown - as if the existence of
loyalist paramilitaries and their closeness to the Orange Order
has come as a huge shock, is arch hypocrisy. It represents a very
calculated attempt to airbrush out of history their own knowledge
of the Order's surreptitious, second-hand involvement in violence
against its enemies.
This deception reached its nadir last week, firstly with the
vision of Peter Mandelson on television admonishing the Orange
Order and warning that their ``good reputation is in danger of
being lost'' and subsequently in the anger of church and state at
the burning of the an effigy of an RUC man on Eleventh night.
Their feigned incomprehension at this act of medieval
superstition was meant to suggest to the wider world that the
Orange Order has suddenly, inexplicably, descended into
barbarism. No mention was made of the half-dozen tricolours which
went up in flames with him, nor of the fact that the burning of
effigies is as integral to Orange culture as FTP graffiti. In
recent years it has been Breandán Mac Cionnaith on top of
the bonfire, and of course poor old Lundy cops it every time.
Could it be, then, that only when their supporters began to
attack `their own' in the crown forces did the pro-British
establishment decide to wash its hands of the Orange Order?
Compare and contrast the appearances of Johnny Adair and the late
Billy Wright in Portadown during Drumcree. Wright, in the midst
of organising the assassination of Catholics, was filmed
conducting an intimate chat with David Trimble (albeit that even
he wasn't dim enough bring 50 cronies and wear an LVF t-shirt
whilst he did so) but nevertheless it did not constitute a fatal
blow to the UUP in the way that the Orange Order would seem to
have been, unintentionally, finally finished off by its
association with Adair.
So far as the Church of Ireland is concerned, it is very
difficult to work out precisely what Christian code it operates
under when it reserves a special degree of anger for the Orange
order when its mobs attack each other and the security forces,
but consistently turns its face away from continuous,
orchestrated attacks on Catholics and on nationalist areas. (The
killings of Margaret Wright and Ann-Marie Smith provide a useful
analogy of the distinction church, state and media implicitly
make when it comes to the murder of nationalists. Both women were
tortured and beaten to death when they ventured into loyalist
bars. The case of Margaret Wright, mistaken for a Catholic by her
murderers, however, has been awarded a special place in popular
history. The murder has been treated as infinitely more shocking
by pro-British elements than the slaying of any Catholic, because
she was in fact a Protestant.)
But now, because of the political imperative to disassociate
themselves from the Orange Order, both the Church of Ireland and
British state need to portray the Order's behaviour over the past
few weeks as an aberration. To acknowledge that it was ever thus
would be to have to answer some very difficult questions about
their own role in the appeasement of Orangeism and its
hangers-on. But whilst they continue to rail against the
targeting of the police by loyalist thugs, there are others who
do remember that similar deeds perpetrated against Catholics have
either been ignored or, if carried out by state forces,
comprehensively legitimated.
At least, however, the ridiculous mythologising about the
Orange Order as a Christian haven for decent, respectable,
law-abiding pillars of the community might come to an end. The
Order was never any of these things. It was always exactly what
it is now; the home of baleful, right-wing extremists ready to
covertly exploit the muscle of a bunch of witless, willing fools
to inflict fear and harm on the nationalist community.
How the Order intends to overcome its new public image as
stubborn, stupid, chauvinist, pathologically sectarian,
hypocritical, highly ambivalent towards violence and `loyal' only
when it suits them is anybody's guess. But, on behalf of Irish
republicans everywhere, I would just like to say to Peter
Mandelson, Robin Eames, David Trimble and all their media friends
now queuing up to have a swipe; we told you so.
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