How to deal with critics

I was going to blog this morning on last night’s TV debate but there’s not that much to say. The three women  – Plaid Cymru’s Leanne Wood,  the Green Party’s  Natalie Bennett and especially the Scots Nats Nicola Sturgeon –  made the four male leaders look like  shop-soiled mirror images of each other. Apart, of course, from Nigel Farage, who managed to display his nastiest as distinct from his nattiest side. OK? Can we all agree on that?

Because I want instead to talk about the VO. I’m tempted to say that this being Good Friday, I thought I should suffer a little and buy a copy, but that wouldn’t be true. I bought a copy all right but it was for the present Mrs Collins, who was boarding the Enterprise for Dublin and might, I thought, appreciate some reading material. Unsurprisingly she recoiled with horror when I offered it to her and shrieked “I said get me a newspaper!” before leaping aboard the Dublin train, shaking her fist out the window. So I took it home with me and glanced through it. As so often is the case in many of our newspapers, the most interesting part was the Letters page.

The one that caught my eye today was by Patrick J Dorrian, who sometimes comments on this site. It appears PJD had written a letter on bonfires and my old chum Nelson McCausland had responded to some criticism it contained. He didn’t like being called a senior Orangeman, even though as PJD points out, he’s in the Orange Order and is 60+ years old. He condemned PJD’s original letter as “a hate-filled diatribe” and an attack on his culture.  PJD today points out that collecting for months and then burning tyres is not a good idea, just as it’s not a good idea to urinate on church or private property, and to criticise these things is not to attack Nelson’s culture. And he notes that Nelson doesn’t  display much leadership in not having a word of criticism for such conduct. Now there’s a surprise.

If you check the ‘About me’ section of this blogsite, you’ll see that I’m proud to cite some words about me by Nelson. His reaction to PJD is pretty typical of the response to anyone who criticises any aspect of Orange culture: you are condemned for being consumed with hatred against all things unionist. An example: I was on Talkback on Radio Ulster/Raidio Uladh yesterday (yes I know, Virginia, I know) and I was asked about the government funding of marching bands. I made the point that I agreed with Basil McCrea, who’d emphasised the extent to which these bands were a source of fellowship and recreation, as well as developing musical skills, for hundreds of young men from Protestant working-class areas. I added that wise choices as to which bands were funded would be important, since some bandsmen’s idea of culture was to march in a circle in front of a Catholic church while playing the Famine Song.

You’ve probably guessed the next bit. A man called in to denounce my comment – the Famine Song bit, presumably – as sectarian. You got that? I refer to bandsmen who play sectarian music while marching in a circle in front of a Catholic church, and I’m being sectarian. ‘Strewth.

So, PJD, I don’t want you to think that you’re being singled out for denunciation. It seems that anyone Catholic/nationalist/republican who dares be critical of any aspect of Orange culture is a bigot (cf ‘About Me’) and is motivated solely by hatred of all things unionist. It’s called kicking the man and not the ball. But I’m glad I came on PJD’s letter – makes me feel less alone. In fact, it almost makes me glad I bought the VO today. Almost.