The dangerous men and women of Garvaghy Road

And what they’re guilty of  – by Pádraig Ó Meiscil I shouldn’t feature here. This is a guest blog and, I think, is brilliant.           “The Orangeman is a sufficiently funny person; and he is funny mainly because he is so serious.” Pádraig Pearse In January 1998, a United Nations special […]

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From walk to Oh Fawk

Is there extradition from the South to the North? Yes? Oh , good to know. Because when they send that jeep round to Michelle O’Neill for breaking the law by standimg in solidarity with the people of Garvaghy Road,they’ll have to send another jeep at least as far as the border into which they can […]

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Been here before By Randall Stephen Hall

A poem and song combo for imaginative strategieshttps://youtu.be/c8-fGbG3yFI?is=hKIvtIESav52FgnaSurely to GodWe’ve been here before?Surely we have?Why would you march down a roadTo annoy and to threaten?With all the potential forFurther violence?Why would you do that?Grown men, not wee boys.And what is the motivationThat moves you now?Faith, Hope and Charity?Where is it?I don’t see it . . […]

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Been here beforeBy Randall Stephen Hall

Been here beforeBy Randall Stephen HallA poem and song combo for imaginative strategieshttps://youtu.be/c8-fGbG3yFI?is=hKIvtIESav52FgnaSurely to GodWe’ve been here before?Surely we have?Why would you march down a roadTo annoy and to threaten?With all the potential forFurther violence?Why would you do that?Grown men, not wee boys.And what is the motivationThat moves you now?Faith, Hope and Charity?Where is it?I […]

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The Orange Order, past and present

The Orange Order often describes itself as a religious organisation. That’s religious in the sense of the Christian religion. If that is correct, it must be a world leader in religious orders that foment public disorder. Here are just some of the  disorder and death the Orange Order brought onto the streets during the nineteenth […]

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The long walk home

    Every July, the Orange Order attends a church service in Drumcree and then faces the great question of our age: how to get home. It’s a mile-long walk, and the Orangemen have had roughly thirty years to work out an alternative route. They have declined to use any of them. The logic is […]

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The British Tradition in the 26 counties – by Joe McVeigh 

      Since the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, a New Ireland is evolving and political attitudes are changing.  There is a growing momentum for Irish reunification. All political parties especially in Dublin should be preparing for the referendum that will decide the future constitutional arrangements on the island of Ireland.    In a […]

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Is Orange the new Black?

Let’s pretend. Let’s pretend that this contested march down the Garvaghy Road on 27 September 2026 is a march through the East End of London exactly 90 years ago. Those insisting on marching are not the Orange Order but  Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts, and they insist on their right to march along Cable Street. They are […]

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