The Militant(logo) 
    Vol.63/No.26           July 19, 1999 
 
 
Rightists Are Pushed Back In N. Ireland  

BY JONATHAN SILBERMAN AND CAROLINE BELLAMY
PORTADOWN, Northern Ireland - "United we stand - Garvaghy Rd. 1999" read the victory T-shirts printed up and worn by residents here over the July 3-4 weekend. For the second year running the annual parade by the anti-Catholic and rightist Orange Order had been prevented from passing through the Garvaghy Road area of this town on the first Sunday in July. Every year the Orange Order and similar organizations stage about 4,000 parades in the six Irish counties that London holds as Northern Ireland. In recent years local residents in nationalist communities have mobilized against the intimidatory demonstrations. "This year 269 of the 4,000 have been contested," Garvaghy Road resident Eilish Creaney told the Militant.

The Portadown parade was rerouted this year after a ruling by the government-established parades commission. The few thousand Orange Order members circled the estate, rallied at Drumcree church, and then returned along the same route. Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition (GRRC) leader Breandan Mac Cionnaith told the Militant that the outcome reflected the broader battle about the future of the Six Counties. "What we have here is Northern Ireland writ small. Over that period the local community and its organization have been strengthened. Last year we were entering a period of the unknown. Everything was very tense. This year we appear less concerned because we know that in the last 12 months the Orange Order have thrown everything at us and they haven't progressed one inch down that road."

Mac Cionnaith emphasized that the Orange Order had come through this weakened. "Just look at the numbers. The media reports that they got 3,000-4,000 people this year's march. That's an accurate figure. Last year they were talking about 25,000! That tells the story in and of itself. Most Orangemen know this is a lost cause."

Rightist forces are weakened
Through promoting sectarian division, the Orange Order has been a pillar of British rule in Ireland. But along with the broader forces of Unionism - those who support the "union" of Northern Ireland with the United Kingdom - it is being seriously divided and weakened. The British rulers can no longer rest upon them in the old way. In the negotiations over implementation of the Good Friday Agreement over five days just prior to the Drumcree events, David Trimble, leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, rejected a deal put forward by the British prime minister and Irish premire. Speaking on BBC's Newsnight program, however, the editor of the influential Unionist daily paper News Letter argued in favor of the deal.

Mac Cionnaith said the Drumcree events closely connected with this broader picture. "The real battle in Portadown is a battle between the anti-Agreement camp and the government. Last year [Portadown Orange Order district master] Harold Gracey said that this is not about Garvaghy Road but about bringing down the Good Friday Agreement."

So, not surprisingly, Unionist and Orange divisions emerged over Drumcree. This time Gracey threatened, "If you don't keep it peaceful I will walk away from this." Presbyterian moderator Dr. John Lockington called on churchgoers, specifically naming the Orange Order, to stay at their place of worship, and not go to the parade. Orange Order grand master Robert Saulters wrote to all lodges in the Six Counties sanctioning local protests but calling for calm, urging them to stay away from Drumcree, and not to erect roadblocks. When dissident marchers broke these instructions during the nights of July 4 and 5, they found themselves battling against the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), the pro-British police force, who fired 14 plastic bullets against the rioters.

Following the weekend's events at Drumcree, the parades commission announced it had decided to block the intended Apprentice Boys parade marching down the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast. Lower Ormeau Concerned Community (LOCC) leader Gerard Rice was on the Garvaghy Road for the July 4 events. "What's happened today shows our strength," he said in an interview with these reporters. "And it reflects a war weariness within the Orange community. Everyone is saying the Orange Lodge should talk to the residents, but they refuse to do so. It shows that what Drumcree is about is not religious freedom but sectarianism." Rice said that LOCC had been able to force the Apprentice Boys into negotiations, though in the event that group followed the Orange Order's lead. "We've also been able to organize community activity. It shows we're confident," he added.

As July 12 approaches, community activity throughout Belfast has intensified. About a dozen residents meetings have already been held in small constituencies across the city. A meeting in Clonard in the Lower Falls area of West Belfast, called by the local Sinn Fein councilor gathered about 160 people.

Role of British army, RUC cops
Following the parades commission decision to reroute the Drumcree parade, the security forces mounted a major operation to build obstacles to marchers seeking to defy the order. The British Army ploughed up the fields between Drumcree church and the Garvaghy Road, dug a 40 foot trench filled with water, deployed razor and barbed wire to prevent loyalists breaching the security force lines. Helicopters were actively deploying troops. Portadown Orange spokesman David Jones called the operation "disgusting and provocative."

The military also shipped in two water cannons from Belgium, though one Garvaghy Road resident questioned whether they would be used against Orange Order people. "I suspect we'd find them aimed at us as we went into action to defend ourselves," he said.

The GRRC has been actively opposing sectarian marches since 1995. In 1995, '96 and '97, the British government forced the way open for the parades to go down the road, after standoffs between massed loyalists and nationalists determined to prevent the parade. In 1997, units of the RUC, backed up by the British Army, ran riot through the area as they "cleared the road."

"The first we knew about it," said Mac Cionnaith, "was when 2,500 troops descended on this community, saturated the area, enforced a curfew, and at 7:00 a.m., the secretary of state announces the decision is to let the march go ahead." Ever since last year's march was rerouted, residents have been living in what they describe as a state of siege. More than 170 marches and rallies supporting the Orange Order have been held, and nationalists and their homes and businesses attacked. Ten people have been murdered in connection with Drumcree.

"If you look at what the community here has done, it is amazing," Sinn Fein assembly member for the area Dara ÓHagan told Militant reporters. "A small nationalist enclave has taken on all the institutions of the Unionist state."

Residents describe daily harassment
Everyone in the area has their own story on how the harassment has affected them. Passing through the cemetery we stopped to talk with Mairead, her mother and her children. They preferred not to give their full names. Mairead's mother explained how they came to live in Garvaghy Road. "We used to live in Brownstown. Then 26 years ago we started to get threats. Then eggs were thrown. Then, after a week away on holiday, we returned to find UDA painted on the house and on our car." The UDA, or Ulster Defense Association, is a loyalist terror group. "The police told us to leave immediately and we were rapidly re-housed. That's how most people came to live here."

Stephen McCann, 12, Chris McDonald, 14, and Stephen Rafferty, 15, told of their regular harassment by the RUC. "We'll walk up the road and they'll stop and question us. On our return the same RUC men will stop and question us again! It happens all the time," said McDonald. "We can't go swimming in the local pool because we get harassed," added McCann. "They know we're Catholics because different schools play each other at football," explained Rafferty.

"We're in here to the end, because we have nothing to lose." stated Eilish Creaney. "There are parades three or four times a week and on Sundays - sometimes more - and you never know when. The RUC has been letting them through, that's how they attack houses in places like Craigwell Avenue. You have to plan everything, even when you do your shopping, for times when it's safer to go to town. Most nationalists work outside Portadown. The two main factories in Portadown are Ulster Carpet Mills and Denny's meat pie factory. The entrance to Denny's used to be on Obins Street, which is on the nationalist side, but they changed it to the other side of the factory, which is in a loyalist area. The overwhelming majority of the workers in both factories are Protestant. And, of course, unemployment is much worse for Catholics." Catholics constitute 32 percent of the population of Portadown, but account for 43 percent of the unemployed and 50 percent of the long-term unemployed.

As this year's Orange march approached Drumcree Hill, around 500 residents gathered outside St. John's Catholic church, where an RUC/British Army barricade blocked the road. In the 14 minutes the parade took to pass by, they stood in dignified silence, refusing to react and give security forces an opening to intervene as marchers sought to taunt them, calling out, "Where's Rosemary?" Rosemary Nelson, a civil rights lawyer who represented the Garvaghy Road residents, was murdered by a loyalist death squad earlier this year. One of the U.S. observers had been attacked and badly hurt by marchers the night of July 3.

More than 100 observers came over from the United States, Canada, and Britain. Others came in solidarity from Ballymun, a working-class area of Dublin, and elsewhere in the Irish Republic; other parts of Northern Ireland; Spain; Belgium; and Italy. The community organized accommodation and food in their homes and in the local community center. GRRC stewards patrolled the area at night and at potential flash points. Two hundred locals attended the launch of a book, written by a number of Garvaghy residents, Garvaghy, A Community Under Siege.

Alex Sothern, a 20-year-old student from London, was part of the delegation organized by the Friends of the Garvaghy Road in London. He was inspired by what he saw in Portadown to extend his stay. "I wanted to come to show support for the community, to show them that they're not alone," he said. "Every single English civilian should come here to understand what's going on. They won't find out from the BBC. You have to stand up and defend these people and tell the truth, and I shall do that."

Caroline Bellamy and Jonathan Silberman are members of the Transport and General Workers Union in London. Kathie Fitzgerald, a member of the United Transportation Union in New Jersey, contributed to this article.

 
 
 
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