When are we going to have an honest conversation about the conduct of PUL parades?

In response to the failure of the Haass talks, Alliance Leader David Ford said: "The real issue with parades was never about structures - the problem was behavior." This is interesting since the Belfast City Centre Management report here on the 12th July parades delivered a stinging indictment against the bands and Orange lodges that march through the capital city. It found tourists who complained of an "intimidatory atmosphere", "louts roaming around drunk" and an untidy public realm.

In my earlier post here I cited a 1925 essay by the Ulster MP W.D. Allen on an Orange demonstration in Tyrone.

"Silently, humorously, doggedly, they mass around a dripping platform, a remarkable feudal, patriarchal, tribal, historical anachronism in these days of moderation, toleration – whine, don’t fight – enlightenment."

I also looked at John Hewitt's 1970 poem, 'Conversations in Hungary' here:

"Our friends in Budapest
days later also, puzzled, queried why,
when the time's vibrant with technology,
Such violence should still be manifest.

Between two factions, in religion's name.
It is 300 years since, they declared,
divergent sects put claim and
counterclaim to arbitration of the torch
and sword."

Conor Cruise O'Brien said in 1996:

"I have, in an Orange context at an Orange House, urged them to see that marching through areas that don't want them is not good policy for the Orange Order itself or for the unionist community."

The first "Orange riot" on record was in 1824, in Abingdon, New York. The 'Orange Riots' of 1870 and 1871 in New York here were infamous. After this, the Congregationalist minister Merrill Richardson from the pulpit of his Madison Avenue church said that the time had come to take back New York City, for if "the higher classes will not govern, the lower classes will."

Rahm Emanuel On Helping 'The Troubled' Youth

 

The Mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanual known as 'The Fighting Bull' has taken a tough stance on crime, violence and failing schools. The situation sounds very similar to Northern Ireland. But the difference is that Chicago is actively addressing the problems. And so it's from leaders like Rahm Emanuel and his administration that we can learn from.

Read the Time Magazine feature on Rahm Emanual and how he is working to turn around the 'violence-plagued' city of Chicago here. At 30 minutes into a discussion with Charlie Rose, the Mayor of Chicago Rahm Emanuel explained how his administration is tackling underachievement and youth delinquency, especially among African-Americans. He said:

Brian Feeney on the Orange Order and public funding

Enlightening Loyalism

 

Before starting a discussion on loyalism, the below quote bears note:

“Periclean Greeks employed the term idiotis, without any connotation of stupidity or subnormality, to mean simply 'a person indifferent to public affairs'."

Veteran Loyalist activist Raymond lavery said here:

"I remember gun battles in my street in 1970 when we had to hide under the stairs to be safe. These young people out here today didn't live though any of that; they can't imagine what it was really like. 

The worst danger is that one of these young people out demonstrating or rioting gets run down by a police Land Rover and is killed or injured. What is important here is that this generation not only get a better formal education but they get a political education too, which there is a serious lack of. Sinn Féin are putting into people's heads that because a flag comes down there is a march towards a united Ireland.