Outreach. Now there’s a word I like and an action I approve of. It means doing stuff that makes your psychological sinews creak and your mental processes groan as you try to establish good relations where there were before poor relations or no relations at all. There’s a selfish element in outreach too, I suppose, in that good relations with your former foe will add value to your life as well as theirs. But for the most part outreach is done for selfless reasons and deserves much credit. Bridge-building is hard but highly-valuable work.
Mary McAleese was elected President of Ireland in 1997. Starting in 1998, every July during her presidency she held a reception involving southern Orangemen, their families and others. The former UDA leader Jackie McDonald was on record as saying he considered Martin and Mary McAleese his friends. In 2008 Mary McAleese visited Brakey Orange Hall in Bailieborough, Co Cavan, and declared “It is possible to be both Irish and British, possible to be both Orange and Irish.” In 2012 Orange Order Grand Secretary Drew Nelson was given an opportunity to address the Irish Seanad, and in Rossnowlagh the Orange Grand Chaplain Rev Stanley Gamble noted that President McAleese had made Ireland “a warm house for Protestants” . Last July a reception was held at Áras an Uachtaráin, hosted by President Higgins to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.
Now that’s what I call outreach. Except there’s a bit missing. What difference has it made? I had an email the other day from a Catholic resident of Larne, expressing the firm intention of getting the hell out of there to somewhere, anywhere else. Those Catholics/nationalists who can manage it do likewise. The Orange Order, hand in hand with the DUP, the UUP and other unionist groups, including those with close paramilitary links, have walked out of talks and promised a ‘graduated’ response in protest at the Parades Commission telling them they couldn’t come back in the evening past Ardoyne shops. The need to do this, contrary to the wishes of the residents and the ruling of the Parades Commission, is so urgent, it puts at risk power-sharing at Stormont. And in a speech at Drumcree, Drew Nelson has declared there’s more:
“”We need to remind the public there are many areas across Northern Ireland where nationalist and republican intolerance is restricting our legitimate religious and cultural expression. Not just here at Drumcree, but also in Dunloy, Rasharkin, Dungiven, Strabane and more recently, nearby in the Victoria Terrace area of Portadown.”
So there’s your answer to outreach: the hands that meet are not those of the Orange order accepting the hand of reconciliation offered by nationalists and republicans. It’s the hands of the Orange Order gripping the hands of the clock and attempting to wrench them back to, oh let’s say, the Eleventh Night 1954.
To those who claim that all this walk-out and graduated response stuff is necessary, that nationalists/republicans are being given concession after concession while unionists/loyalists are having their entire culture attacked, allow me to quote my favourite Irish-American, John McEnroe: “You cannot be serious!”
PS Did you know that President Higgins has been invited to participate in next year’s Orange Order march in Rossnowlagh, Co Donegal? If he has any sense, he’ll tell them to take a running jump at themselves. To encourage him to do so, you can if you choose register your objections on info@president.ie . I’m hurrying there myself right now. I mean, there’s outreach and then there’s being taken for a buck- stupid eejit.
Dr C
Unfortunately, they are somehow serious.
I just don’t understand why. None of their arguments stand up to logically scrutiny.
You know I love having a stab at SF and some elements within nationalism, but, in all fairness, the ball is in the Order’s court. and they’re just shouting at it.
Look how many loyalist and Orange parades there are in mainly nationalist towns west of the Bann.
Magherafelt has a union flag up 365 days a year as well as a loyalist arch during carnival season which contains the visages of Cromwell and Willie McCrea (the same Cromwell who gave Scottish Presbyterianism a good skelping in the 17th century).
The flags that go up are in many instances insensitive. There’s no need for UVF flags and up in Stroke-City there’s certainly no need for Parachute Regiment flags.
Noxious materials are burnt in defiance of the law.
Not to mention religious symbols, flags and political posters.
If they believe that they are under attack then it is because they are believing their own propaganda.
I love elements of marching culture but I believe the current path is sending it to oblivion. Or worse e.g. the Glasgow 12th.
Once again, either Mike Nesbitt knows something we don’t or he’s missing out on an opportunity to steer the UUP away from the rocks.
There is a growing market for middle of the road unionism.
Hard line unionism, though stubborn, is rooted firmly in a shrinking demographic.
They have to make the jump sooner or later. Why not do it now when this D-Day that they’ve lined up backfires.
meh.
Here in Larne ALL parties came together (yes Sinn Fein too) and as a group said the Loyalists should take down the Loyalist paramilitary flags. The very next day the Parachute Regiment flags went up as well as an additional 2 flags on every lamp post (thats 4 to a lamp post now). Do you think they would have listened to their leadership if Sinn fein had stayed away from the repremanding?
” Do you think they would have listened to their leadership if Sinn fein had stayed away from the repremanding?”
Alas, probably not, though I would say SF’s presence wouldn’t help. Even so, I can imagine a groups of hardliners just pulling kids along with them.
What I would be interested to know is, are band leaders included in such talks? In many instances they’re involved in fleggy things.
Put the band leaders on the spot or make it clear that they are under scrutiny then we might get somewhere.
Incidentally, I think El Presidente should go.
A lot of you may not realise it but there’s a bit of a schism developing in the OO, between the rural lodges and the City lodges.
The city lodges love to scream of intolerance and nationalist aggression. On one hand rural Orangemen automatically agree with their brethren but on the other hand it’s becoming increasingly difficult for them to ignore things like Rossnowlagh.
Every little bit that can be done to show them that a UI won’t be like a Martin Corry TD murder-fest (which BTW is how it is depicted).
So I say Higgo should get himself up there, have a cup of tea and get in front of many cameras as possible.
It’ll make next year’s carnival season even more ridiculous:
“The Republic wants no Protestants on this island!!!!….What do you mean ‘the President’ is at Rossnowlagh? Does he have the army with him to drive our brethren into the sea?! No? Tea you say? Hmmmm. NO SURRENDER!!!!… “
I tend to wonder what Irish Presidents do in their job, position or whatever you want to call it when they have a lot of time to think and plan. More a figure head or envoy that anything else they have powers which they very rarely use if ever. Some of these ‘powers’ are very real and quite important for instance If the president thinks a law passed by the Oireachtas (Parliament and Senate) may be unconstitutional, the president can refuse to sign and instead refer the bill to the Supreme Court for a decision.
Now lets be honest, the Orange Order isn’t shown the same respect or disrespect as the case may be in the South basically due to the fact that citizens in the South are more interested in monetary matters than anything else. There are the few who think about what the unification of Ireland would bring or what they would lose in the process but the facts and figures are out there for all to see. Back to the Presidential Orange thing. Mary McAleese was a great figure head…or President and she did some great things in her time. Everyone liked her even the Loyalists. I recall a quote from a lovely young lady who was asked what she thought about the Irish President visiting Belfast and her words were “Awk shes a lovely wee lady, her hairs really nice but she wears to much makeup” that made me laugh but I thought to myself, that answer would have been so different if that had been the Queen of the UK or for instance The President of the USA. Any President of Ireland will always be seen as a minor player even by our own people and to have President McAleese snuggling up the Orange Order was a bit of a kick in the stones for those of us who have been treated so badly, like second class citizens by the Orange Order. She works for the people of the South but what people down South seem to forget is there are people up here who see ourselves as purely Irish, not Northern Irish, not UK Irish or any other kind of diluted Irish. I see myself as Irish and solely Irish.
If Mary had come to Ardoyne or the Garvaghy Road or Carrick Hill and watched the absolute disrespect and single minded lawlessness to Loyalists would she have changed her mind or seen Orange men in a different light? Maybe someone should ask her. No Irish President should be cuddling up to any Loyalist group. Yes they should show them respect and dignity as anyone should be shown but to have an Orange man giving a speech at the Seanad, that’s going too far. President Higgins should be invited to Ardoyne or Carrick Hill on the 12th of July and see how he reacts, see if he cuddles up to the Orange men and Loyalists then….you never know, he might.
AG
I can see the temptation as Jude puts it to encourage the President to tell the Orange where to go, but I’m not sure where that would get us.
I still feel the strategy of rewarding good behaviour and punishing bad, like you would with a child,is the best way forward.
So Rossnowlagh being good behaviour should be positively greeted, while Twaddell being bad behaviour needs to be withstood.
According to the Parades Commission determination a more positive response to the 2013 determination could well have led to a different determination this year, but the OO are adept at biting off their nose to spite their face.
No talks with residents and loads of illegal marches in the interim leave them no further on.
Drew Nelson adresses the Seanad. I am sure he was cuddled and coddled and loudly applauded. I am sure there was much back slapping and people contorting them selves to make him welcome and to probably cast an odd bad word about ‘those republicans’ In todays BT, I bet John Bruton was giddy with joy. I read that this same Drew Nelson called for upcoming Orange marches/protests to be peaceful, ‘but he can’t guarantee they won’t descend into violence” Seems like a threat to me, reminiscent of the DUP sending out the fleg leaflets and getting everyone riled up. Also in todays BT, i read about a huge bonfire that contains a statue of Mary as well as election posters and assorted tricolors( Ivory Coast?) and effigies.. Is this also part of the shared future? This seems part and parcel of an old choreographed dance; The OO makes thinly veiled threats and the PSNI and former RUC look the other way and in most cases force the marches through communities that do not want the march there in the first place. Witness Drumcree over the years, , Ardoyne etc. remember Nobel prize winnerTrimble sharing the stage with Billy Wright while wearing his sash at Drumcree, the man who wouldn’t let SF trample on Democracy. It is all too predictable and all too sad. GRMA Jude for another dead on blog
The mention of Rossnowlagh reminds one that there are, indeed, outposts of the Orange Order on the Free State side of the Frontier and that they get to celebrate their Day/La in the sun/grian/rain/baisteach every year.
To be outrageously outreachful about it: any bets on Le Monde one day/la/jour carrying the headline: Oo ! La La !…..?
Most of these LOLs are Border Line cases and while there may be one or even some located in Dublin’s fair c. where the g. are so p., one is unaware of them. Indeed, during the course of a long and illustrious life one has only once had the p. of making the acquaintance of a Liffeyside Orangeman.
Let’s call him Bill (for that was his name – honest !). I got to meet him because he was the near neighbour in Inner-city Dublin of a friend of mine (whose opinion I respect – now, there’s a hackneyed phrase so beloved of hacks if ever there was one and it is one I have long had a hankering to use in public for ages – thank you, Esteemed Blogmeister). My friend was on the opinion that Bill was ‘the thickest plank on two legs he had ever met’. Reason? Because, in his hearing, he had heard Bill wondering out loud: ‘Is it possible to drive from Dublin to New York?’.
For all that, Bill was a harmless poor divil and he was once inveigled to stand on the terraces of Hill 16 when the true Blue and Bluer were playing. He seems to have enjoyed the carnival atmosphere hugely, though he did have a down moment or two. Like the time the Dublin player stood up to kick a peno into the Hill and – kicked the ball over the bar. In the hush which descended on the Hill in the immediate aftermath of the abortive kick Bill was astounded to find he was only one to be clapping. (Sam, not Maguire, but Beckett would have understood).
At least Biil was happy to do a spot of outreaching. The same could hardly be said of the denizens of Killjoy Jail located on L’Avenue de Lockdown on the other side of the North South railway line which once, memorably, hosted the Peace Train. These G.M.O. would not cross the street, quite literally, to darken the gates of the Cathedral of the CLG/GAA,not in 1690 years. (Now if Hill Sixteen was up to 90, that might put a different twirl in their batons).
G.M.O.?
That would be…..Genetically Modified Orangemen. Eh? Who, dey? Put it this way: G.M.O. is to West Britain what Ebola is to West Africa. That both have been hogging the global headlines over the past week is or maybe isn’t a coincidence.
Still, more clarification needed? Well, it was the G.M.O. who were spotted in the vicinity of Croker dancing around the bonfire pallets upon which were piled a mountain of county GAAnseys, even waving their banners which read thus (give or take a misspelling or three): ‘We’ve managed to prorogue the pirogue !’.Afther the Powers that Be did their usual Pontius Pallet act.
(Pedantic note for sniffy followers of Stockhausen: Hank Williams once sang a song called ‘Jambayala’ which contained such juicy words of cajun-country: ‘crawfish pie and fillet gumbo’ and crucially ‘ me gotta go to pole the pirogue’).
Yes, EB, (which stand for Esteemed Blogmeister, not Ebola, one hastens to add), one feels the discerning readership is with one.
Yes, for the shambles which has been the Five Concert Fiasco is down to the G.M.O. who infest (almost said inhabit) the vicinity of the Croke Park Paddock. Don’t just take the Warbeckian word for it, listen if you like to what Kieran Mulvey, the wise old owl of a mediator said (I paraphrase him): during his negotiations with the local ‘residents’ (one of whose spokesmen lived within earshot in distant Castleknock, though it could have been Castlerock) he encountered a hardcore of hardline hardchaws who were implacably opposed to the GAA, which they persisted in calling the …GAH.
That this putting of a disinterested finger on the crux of the whole shebang did NOT get picked up by the media goes, even, gahs, without saying. Indeed, this very morning we had a spokesman (or rather shpokesman) from the organ which employs The Irish Times as its nome de guerre (that would be The Unionist Times, you there, down at the back) emoting: ‘Cut away all the claptrap and the finger of blame can only musht, be pointed at one guilty party and one only: the GAA. Now, i’m spheaking as a GAA man myself……’. After that I lost him, finding as I do the Yerra version of the Q’s English alien to one’s bleedin’ Dub ears. His name was Reagan. I didn’t catch his first name but it certainly wasn’t Ronald, for it was a few notches below the intellectual level we have come to expect from Ron. (What, Ron dead? When?).
Now, if one may place one’s marked cards on the table. One is no Garth Brooks fan. Au contraire. For, how could one even remotely like someone who sounds alarmingly like the name of some gated, upscale estate in Dort-speaking Dublin (‘Brook Garth’ anyone?). Besides, to moi GB is ‘all hat and no back catalogue’.
Truth is, when it comes to ‘countrywestern’ (note the absence of the ‘and’ there, y’all) one is – sadly- cursed with an old Warbeckian weakness, Le Snobbisme. And in this instance, Le Snobbisme with knobs on.
For us sniffynoses, July 31, 1964 (yes, the 50 th anniversary is just around the corner) was ‘the Day the Country Music died’.That was the sad day the Velvet Voice went Underground, the day when a single engine, two seater Beechcraft Debonair approaching Nashville, Tn from the direction of Arkansas ran into the ebony eye of some turbulent weather, aka a thunderstorm over Brentwood, Tn, with the most awesome American signer of the age at the controls.
Oh, if only Gentleman Jim Reeves (for it was he) had been in the passenger seat and Gentleman Jim Gavin with his hands on the joystick !
But, of course, that is not the point and there is scarcely need of Hawkeye to demonstrate that.
The real tragedy here is that the whole shambles could quite easily have been averted if only the simple, but beautiful compromise from Camp Warbeck had been accepted: for Garth Brooks to do 3 shows and for GARRET Brooks to do the other 2.
Alas, the Billy Bayous were NOT for turning.
Goodbye now, Joe, me gotta go.
.
I swear ,there is an unholy naievite afoot within Northern Ireland. It is especially apparent in the emoting of unionism’s attachment to what they perceive as “Cultural Rights to Parade”. What I think is really going on is the outworkings of a paranoia that has allowed them to believe that they are being opposed because of “Culture” . They’ve hypnotised themselves with this false claim.
It’s a sad fact that this is not the case .It’s really all about “bad behaviour” and who you readily allow into your home or your garden or your street …and those whom you wouldn’t. You really don’t want some of these people near you . They’d be barred from the pub for godsakes! It is foolish for anyone with a brain, in unionism, or otherwise , to believe any of this childish paranoid claptrap. It is also a dark laughing matter that adults with any wit or intelligence would have anything to do with any of this “culture”. This bull-headed “need” to dress up in a made up uniform with self -certifying titles and adornments and march the roads.
I can’t imagine any of them struggling through the writings of Proust, or Kafka , mind ,to develop their cultural landscape …Can anyone?
The bigger picture is that unionism sees that nationalism is looking away from these parachocial piss- fights and is seeing it’s future already in a United Ireland context. In nationalism’s mind it is actually practically there already. They’ve already made the point that unionism got the Game completely wrong for some one hundred years and more and it took an awful conflagration to bring that reality home . Even then , many of them still couldn’t believe how badly wrong they got it. They cannot still bear to share government with the men and women who told them the bare , bald facts of life. .The only thing nationalism needs , even more than Unionism’s compliance ,which Unionism will not easily give, is the actual acceptance by their southern Irish neighbours in any future referendum…which will come sometime soon.
I think unionism knows this and it’s final throw of the dice is to cause such an unholy stink right now and in the near -developing future that the Southerners will run a mile before voting for any such scenario. At the moment Unionism’s latest great Big Idea” is to gather the unionist “family” together in “gentle protest” about the erosion of their culture.
The bald fact is they are busily eroding that same “culture” themselves , without help from anyone else.
It was wonderful to hear elected representatives were flying kites at Stormont, An Taoiseach was organising concerts in Dublin and Mr Cameron was discussing cake in Parliament. I knew it was too good to be true. The recipe for the cake is Top Secret and an appropriate Public Interest Immunity Certificate will be signed in due course.
Perhaps the Inquiry, that PR is demanding, will invite evidence from Nationalists who live in areas that the OO demand to infest each year, to give evidence as to why they don’t want the annual visits. Perhaps photos of behaviour outside churches, television optics of the supporters from ballysillan expressing their culture as they pass between the houses on Crumlin Road would be admissible. Phone Cameras to the ready for this year’s festival
I was reading something the other day (totally unrelated to Ireland) where the author discussed something called ‘postcolonial melancholia’ –
“Gilroy defines this melancholia in terms of an avoidance; it is about evading ‘the painful obligations to work through the grim details of imperial and colonial history and to transform paralyzing guilt into a more productive shame that would be conducive to the building of a multicultural nationality that is no longer phobic about the prospect of exposure to either strangers or otherness.’ (Paul Gilroy, Postcolonial Melancolia, Columbia University Press, 2005, p99) It comes out of a ‘loss of a fantasy of omnipotence’. Like Brown’s left melancholy then, postcolonial melancholia is a disavowed form of melancholia; its ‘signature combination’ Gilroy writes, is that of ‘manic elation with misery, self-loathing, and ambivalence.’ (Postcolonial Melancholia, p104) The postcolonial melancholic doesn’t (just) refuse to accept change; at some level he refuses to accept that change has happened at all.”
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/ardoyne-parade-unionist-leaders-including-peter-robinson-call-for-legal-inquiry-into-north-belfast-march-dispute-30421701.html
Intriguing quotation, RJC. I certainly recognise the self-loathing bit – there are Irish people who (while pretending otherwise) have been taught to despise things Irish as by definition inferior. Cultural cringe, the Aussies call it. I think we’re shedding it but we’re not there yet.
Hello Jude and subscribers.I have been following this blog for over a year now and have found it to be an instructive and fascinating read. I hope I can add to it in some insignificant way.
In relation to the Twelth, I must say that, it makes me seriously question the merits of a UI. I, like many others will escape with my family over the border. If that border were no longer there, to whence would we escape? I feel at home when I cross into Donegal ( perhaps to do with my Malin G’parents) and don’t think I’m ready for Sammy Wilson et al having speaking rights in the Dail. I am, after all happy that the swings remain open for use on Sundays.
Where I live, UFF flags are currently fluttering from the lamp posts, along with British Parachute regiment and UVF flags. Even when it comes to banners we can see the hand of state/loyalist collusion! Incidentally I hear Diane Dodds has bought this for the mighty Nigel, bearing in mind what happened last year….
https://encrypted-tbn1.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQwAE7hQpXweS2P4-VVIbXKgLMtUyXC2KeBnTT58TLnQH3qIDMdEg
Another Jude
That really is a disgrace.
How unionist politicians abide this is beyond me. How can they get their knickers in a twist about the Provos and then allow the flags of loyalist killers to be flown.
Absolute hypocrisy.
If we’re going to deal with criminals, can we not out source flag removal services to the Russian Mafia or some one equally dodgy. Pay them per fleg…
Your point regarding Higgins’ attendance is well argued, rational and intelligent AG. Orangism would find yet more cover removed from which to entrench their irrationality. Sadly, that is were I feel it would fail. Orangism as Constituted and led, has irrationalism embedded on its Statutes equal only to its reactionary belligerence. Nothing I feel, in terms of accomodation or out-reach effects, has effected, or is likely to effect them in any kind of positive way. I believe strongly that they must not ever be afforded a fig leaf of respectibility from anyone imbued with the power of reason. To paraphrase the Great United Irishman Jemmy ‘James’ Hope when speaking of the rejuvenated established Order and its Triumphant spread as it liberally planted the creeping Ivy seeds of discord and future division,- ‘…scoudrels and rascals who are blind to reason, and intend to remain so….A prophet indeed.
How about Higgo agrees to go to Rossnowlagh on the condition that the same group of Orangemen who meet & greet him take him to the Belfast 12th the next week, or Carrick hill or even Kuchure Kamp Twaddell?
He then gets to see both sides of the Order and watch as they try to square a circle.
I think he’ll find quite the chasm in the OO.
Happy 12th everybody have a great day!
Higgins should attend the Donegal parade.
Reward Orangemen who behave in a respectful and dignified way. Treat the troublemakers as the trash that they are.