The whole idea of these marches is to raise tensions and antagonise nationalists. There’s no point singing “We are the Billy boys” if there’s no Fenians to hear it!!

The whole point of the Orange Order is to maintains the political supremacy of their faith. If you are a nationalist and you have 5000 men marching down your street with the Lambeg drum roaring and rattling your windows. You look out and u see the Local RUC men, marching with your local Loyalist paramilitaries and Unionist politicians. Well, you know your place then don’t you. You’ll stay quiet and be a good little boy, cause if the Politicians or RUC think you are uppity they just have to mention it to their lodge brother in the UFF and your gone, dead. Welcome to the way the North was run for 70 years.

Well, you know your place then don’t you. The Orange Order’s most played tune is Croppies Lie Down and King Billy’s Boys, who are up to their necks in fenian blood. You can’t stand on someones neck, if you have to march on Royal ave. that would be just a parade then.

I was thinking the same thing myself. They are very expensive.

Hi David. Dont worry, they wont burn the Tricolour thats them saying that all is welcome to join in the fun.

Wake up Richard. You’re dillusional. Of course they’re going to burn the Tri colour; they do it every year

Whoosh

So what if they burn the Irish flag? As long as no human is harmed I don’t care what they do.

Comment of the week above.

The state here gives them funds as part of the peace process, the Orange Order not being able to get funds off the EU or British Govt’s as their legislation on groups that promote hatred, bigotry and active exclusion based on faith or race prevents it.

Oranges don’t do Irony but this is a big one.

The KKK are not banned.

Ah yes, my mistake. The first amendment in the US… Most people wouldn’t display their KKK membership publicly with pride, whereas the Orangemen do

@Reada. There are bigger bonfires ready to go on the Falls Road. Saw them yesterday. Why aren’t those photos included in the article, I wonder? Any ideas?

With exactly the same pictures.

You can be sure if it was a Republican tradition to burn bonfires that the authorities would be dismantling the fires before they got so big. It’s awful to think our people have to endure this sectarian bullying just “90 miles from Dublin”.

Reada, do ya think our Taoiseach may make a comment in the Dail about the terrorising and bullying of Irish citizens living in the North?
Do you think Alan Shatter might make a remark about his favorite city in the North, you know, the one he calls Londonderry?

If this was the other way around, ie Southern thugs piling a big bonfire together, burning the Union jack, and making fun of civilians that were murdered during the troubles, there would be a bloody outrage across the Island and across the water…
But as usual, our Government sits back, says nothing, and then doesn’t understand when the irish in teh Ardoyne end up arming themselves to protect themselves from the Army of Orange Order supporters who will undoubtedly attack the Ardoyne over the next 2-3 days.

Then, we will have the FFG/Labour/FFers on here, complaining and screaming about the Irish using weapons to defend their homes and their families. It was exactly the same (except on a much bigger scale) in the 1960’s and early 70′s.
Until you have lived in an area like the Ardoyne, and have had your street literally shut off from society by armed Orange Order thugs, you will never be able to understand the real fear that results in people resorting to taking up arms. Last year, the Police stood idly by, while these thugs ran riot around the Irish areas.
Things need to change. The Unionist leaders need to use language that discourages this behaviour. They need to be seen standing shoulder to shoulder with the Irish at flash points like the Ardoyne etc.
Until this happens, the lack of leadership leads to vacuums and fuels fires that result in intimidation, terrorism and totally unecessary deaths every year.

No Cal, I wouldn’t hold out much hope any Fine Gael TD to speak out about any of this. And dead right they’d have plenty words to say if the roles were reversed. Fianna Fail, the so-called Republican Party were no better tbh. This always irritated me growing up in Dublin but as usual it will be the Republican side will make the comprises in the 6 counties and Sinn Féin will continue to take abuse in An Dáil every time they question the government on anything. But we’ll struggle on. Ya can’t keep a good thing down. ;)

Hi Clare ,You worry to much. Have a few sherberts and calm down.

I’m calm Richard, but my family are from Belfast so I can’t help but worry right now

What orange order parade?

I totally agree. The focus of education in NI is the divide of Protestant and Catholic schools. I grew up in NI and I was lucky my family were not living in the core of either nationalism or unionism. I was taught to respect all and that religion is not a definer! There are plenty of areas in NI where unfortunately bigotry is learned from parents still, so until the education system is overhauled, this will remain.

They are divided by estates anyway so the schools would be divided Religion in NI is the outer manifestation of a political or national division. That’s why they are burning the tricolour and not just images of the Pope.

@Eoin – you’re right, the kids would still go home to their respective estates. However, kids actually mixing at school would provide an experience where they can actually see something in people from other religious backgrounds.

It’s fairly obvious that this would be of benefit to future generations.

Agreed Conor. When I was brought up my parents took care to hide any prejudice they had so that i could make up my own mind. When i was in primary school in Belfast I was able to take part in the CRIS project (Community Relations In Schools) so once a month we took lessons with a school from “the other side”.

The first day we took lessons together a lad in my class turned up in near enough a full Glasgow Rangers kit, I called him a tramp and asked him were his uniform was, he didn’t know said his dad told him to wear that. That’s not isolated, I have family in Belfast who won’t socialise outside of east Belfast for fear they could end up in a mixed environment.

What the North needs of more integrated schools, less pandering to sectarianism and a hefty dose of reality.

Religion is part of it, but is not the main part. There were Protestant IRA man, indeed their leader in the 70′s at the height of it all, had an English father and Belfast Protestant mother, which is were he learnt his Republicanism and Irish nationalism from.

Like the very very most of conflicts it is about power and control. What is destroying the Orange Order and Unionist supremacy is that it is not longer possible to use the state to keep down the croppies, it’s a level playing field now. It is why their is such a crisis of faith in Unionist politics and culture, they were defined for hundreds of years by Supremacist thinking, and that is no longer an option.

Oh Conor…and you’re an O’Neill…..(slaps own face very hard)……you blame all of this on schools? Most of those skangers likely spent little if any time in school.

If the 47% of the population in the North that are Catholic would go back to the good old days prior the 90′s and accept that they are lower than shi7 on the shoe of an Orange man, then there would be no tension. So it is all the Republicans fault for not knowing their place and wanting to be equals.

Climate change usually pertains to the future, these clowns prefer to concentrate on the past and their triumphant celebrations of an event that happened in the “south”, the same south they deem to be a foreign state they have no cultural ties to.

In Drumcree in the mid 90′s an Orange Parade was stopped and there was mass rioting there, the RUC had one officer killed by a blast bomb, the loyalist mass killer Billy wright after marching with the leadership of the UUP up to Garvaghy, went off one night and killed a taxi driver just because he was a Catholic. There were riots and disturbances across the NorthThe RUC shot less than a hundred rubber bullets.

They then went in one morning and battered the residents off the road, there were riots that night, the RUC shot over 3000 rubber bullets the first night alone.

Double standards apply, thankfully not to the same degree as they used to though.

I don’t want a united Ireland either, to be associated with them screw that.
Its the uk’s mess not ours, cthank god for that!

what a lovely display of solidarity with your fellow human beings

Does both your charitable natures also extend to the 3rd World I wonder?

McBab, would i be right in saying that according to your logic, there should be no Irish embassies or Irish ambassadors outside of Ireland. Any Irish who get into trouble anywhere else, can go swing?
Or do you think the Irish Government and the Irish people should support the Irish people (Irish passport holders) in the North who are suffering at the hands of these bigots?

Ignore MaCrab. I’m surprised he’s not holding out for a united Ireland with us all back in the commonwealth.

I’d be hoping for a United Ireland. I was up in Newry today and plenty of tricolours around the place – none of them on bonfires. I’m sure most Protestants in the 6C are mortified by these sectarian bigots. It won’t put me off wanting a United Ireland. If our brothers and sisters in the 6C have to put up with it and it’s good enough for them then they’re good enough for the rest of us in the 26!

People’s mindsets have changed but that offers no understanding to families who will actively be singled out, intimidated by “celebrating culture”.

When i made my comment i was only commenting on the bonfires and not the intimidation side of things.

Thousands of your Orange Order neighbours, everything from the local police, loyalist Para’s, doctor, plummer etc marching past your house and spitting in your Garden because your the only Catholic on the street, is not the kind of hatred that dies out. Thankfully the Orange Order is ageing and fading away, but the hatred that it espouses and fosters is still very strong and a very powerful call for many people. 300 years of being told that your neighbours are racially inferior to you, servants of the devil and needing to be kept down at all costs will take decades to fix. We’re probably half way through it.

But the imaginary punters in your imaginary pub probably realise what a strange mitty-esque character you are.

The name is Lennon. Richard Lennon. License to k…

I’ll be down in a minute Mam!

Hi Richard Your some boyo. You must have them laughing all the time in that pub.

No way, I was in the special forces too. Is your name H. M. Murdock?

Jaysus Richard.. I’m holding onto the edge of my seat.. Tell me more.. Where you there when they got bin laden? Was the movie “black hawk down” based on your memoirs? You should play yourself in a movie!

All a bit of fun? Then can they explain what the tricolour is doing on top of a bonfire?

Oh it looks like great fun! Why don’t the NI tourist board use these images in brochures? Im sure tourists would love to be a part of this

They probably got council grants for this, they often do.

The Orange Order has about 100k members and over the last 30 years has often been able to bring our 150k people to shut down the streets and roads of the North, when the taigs were getting troublesome and demanding things like one man, one vote etc etc or what u might call basic human rights.

Giving them a grant and turning a blind eye to their rabid bigotry, is basically a way of making sure that 100k Orange Men keep their hatred to walking past their Catholic neighbours houses and just shouting slurs and death wishes on them and their children rather than actively working to keep them in the gutter by fair or foul means.

That is progress when it comes to the Orange Order.

They left themselves behind by not moving forward. If they want to be included they need to engage with the system, not start a riot every time some ex-prisoners scheme for loyalists needs funding.

In the first sitting of the NI Assembly 3 MLA’s were chosen to represent Loyalism, David Ervine and Billy Hutchinson of the PUP/UVF and Gary McMichael of the UDP/UDA. With the exception of Ervine who was an exceptionally gifted talker they lost their seats in the next election. The PUP and UDP now longer exist in Stormont due to lack of support or interest. If there are so many loyalists who are unhappy at being left behind why are they voting for mainstream Unionist Parties who cater more towards the middle class Protestant population.