Longkesh Inside Out

A FRESH ROLE FOR ORANGEISM IN THE LOYALIST COMMUNITY

The Orange Order must use the 2013 Marching Season to re-launch its role in the Loyalist community. Former Blanket columnist and Radical Unionist commentator, DR JOHN COULTER, maintains that the Order is at a new crossroads in its history. In this exclusive article for Long Kesh Inside Out, Dr Coulter outlines his way forward for the Loyal Orders.

This year’s Marching Season will be absolutely vital in dictating which direction, and how much influence, the Loyal Orders – and Orangeism in particular – have among the Loyalist working class community.

While there can be no doubt republicanism has embarked upon a campaign of political ethnic cleansing against British culture in Ireland, north and south, the Orange Order must return to its Home Rule roots of a century ago and play a key role in mobilising the pro-Union community in Northern Ireland.

In similar mobilisation campaigns of the current conflict – in 1974 against the Sunningdale Agreement and 1985 against the Anglo-Irish Agreement – the Orange Order played an important role in organising Unionist resistance.

But what the Orders (Mainstream Orange, Independent Orange, Black and Apprentice Boys) could not accomplish in 1974 was to provide a political alternative to the Sunningdale Executive when it collapsed after the Ulster Workers’ Council strike.

What Orangeism failed to do in 1974 was the ‘Devo Max’ alternative which Scottish National Party leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has planned should Scots vote to remain in the Union next year.

By ‘Devo Max’ I mean increased legislative powers for the Scottish Parliament, which ironically would be as near Home Rule for Scotland as makes no difference. In the original Home Rule crisis for Ireland a century ago, many Scottish Unionists volunteered to help defend the Irish Unionist position in 1913.

‘Devo Max’ would be, in political practicalities, Maximum Devolution. A ‘Devo Max’ solution to the Scottish situation would have clear ‘knock-on’ benefits for the Stormont and Welsh Assemblies. It would mean more powers for the people of Northern Ireland; a greater say in the running of our communities, which was a trait of democracy we were denied during the dark days of Direct Rule.

Had Orangeism’s Grand Lodge of Ireland and the ruling bodies of the other Loyal Orders produced a grassroots ‘Devo Max’ solution for the then Unionist Coalition (United Ulster Unionist Council, or Treble UC), it would be highly unlikely the Unionist community would have to eventually deal with a Provisional Sinn Fein partnership government at Stormont.

Had Unionists offered a workable alternative to the Sunningdale Executive, Direct Rule would not have been imposed on Northern Ireland, and the British administration would have allowed the Northern Ireland Parliament to eradicate the Provisional IRA in the same way as the Northern Ireland Parliament smashed the IRA Border campaign from 1956-62.

People may point to the role which the Loyalist paramilitaries had in 1974 in de-stabilising the Sunningdale Executive. There was also the influence of switching off the electric and the fact the British Army did not want to face down the Loyalists.

Clearly the memories of the famous Curragh Mutiny of March 1914 lingered long in the mind of the British establishment. Would the British Army be prepared to supress a Loyalist Rebellion in 1974 as it had done years earlier in Kenya against the Mau Mau?

At the height of the Home Rule crisis in Ireland in 1914, almost 60 officers of the 3^rd Cavalry Brigade stationed at the Curragh Army camp in County Kildare, near Dublin, informed their commander-in-chief that they would prefer dismissal rather than impose Irish Home Rule on the Unionists of Ulster. The British establishment backed down, but was really saved by the outbreak of the Great War later that year.

In 1974, the Orange Order in particular acted as a conduit between the middle class Unionist parties’ leadership and the working class Loyalist leadership of the paramilitaries. But Orangeism’s problem has been, and always will be, that whilst it can mobilise, it cannot control.

The Provisional IRA and INLA leaderships always possessed a power to be able to turn the tap of violence – especially republican rioting – on and off at will. Orangeism possesses no such discipline.

For example, in 1986, Unionism organised a Day of Action against the Anglo-Irish Agreement of the previous November. The Orange Order played a major role in bringing people onto the streets, just as it had done in the Ulster Says No rallies at Belfast City Hall and across Northern Ireland.

However, the March ’86 Day of Action marked a significant turning point in the Ulster Says No campaign. Orangeism failed to prevent the activities of that day descending into mob violence. The media coverage of Loyalists attacking the police turned many middle class Unionists off the Ulster Says No campaign.

As with 1974, the Loyal Order leaderships failed to read the political situation correctly in 1985/86. The protest Westminster by-elections of 1986 merely resulted in the loss of the Newry and Armagh seat to the SDLP, as around 2,000 Sinn Fein voters merely switched tactically to give Seamus Mallon victory.

Unlike the Sunningdale Agreement, the Anglo-Irish Agreement signed at Hillsborough gave the Irish Republic its first say in the running of Northern Ireland’s affairs since partition in the 1920s. The Dublin government was able to establish the Maryfield Secretariat near Belfast.

But what Unionists failed to grasp was the ability to return the serve and demand a say in the running of the Republic. Although the IRA pogroms against the Southern Protestant community had driven many families into the new Ulster state or to Scotland, a strong Protestant community remained intact in the border counties of Donegal, Monaghan, Leitrim and Cavan. Orangeism also maintained a fairly strong showing in these counties, as demonstrated at the annual traditional Rossnowlagh Orange parade on the Donegal coast.

Orangeism should have demanded and established a Unionist Embassy in the heart of the Dail at Leinster House to champion the civil rights of Southern Protestants. Ironically, we should not make the assumption that all Southern Protestants are Unionists.

Many Southern Protestant families who remained in the 26 Counties integrated themselves into the Southern political system, especially Fine Gael. Even the thought of a Southern Irish Unionist Party to represent Protestants in the republic became a political non-starter.

Perhaps to survive, many Southern Protestant churches adopted an ecumenical approach with the Irish Catholic Church. Religiously, this took place in an era when the Irish Catholic Bishops dominated the Southern political agenda – especially during the de Valera period – before the clerical sexual abuse scandals became common public knowledge.

The Southern republicans’ Achilles’ Heel is that it cannot tolerate – and fears – Unionist involvement in the affairs of the 26 Counties. Dail parties are quite content to moan about matters affecting nationalists in Northern Ireland, but they get exceptionally nervous about Britain – or Unionists – returning this serve and demanding an equal say in the running of the republic.

In 1986, instead of tramping the streets of Northern Ireland with the Ulster Says No campaign, helping to form the Ulster Clubs network and the red-bereted Ulster Resistance paramilitary group, the Orange leadership should have used its Border county Grand Lodges to set up the Unionist Embassy in Dublin.

The 1974 Dublin and Monaghan Loyalist bombings, which killed more than 30 people, demonstrated the fear of the Southern nationalist regime in Leinster House to any militant Loyalist activity in the republic.

While Britain has the economic clout to ‘soak up’ even the most sustained of republican bombing campaigns, the republic – conversely – could be brought to its knees financially within a fortnight if Loyalists embarked on a similar campaign across the 26 Counties.

The UVF was always blamed for the Dublin and Monaghan bombing, although republicans have always equally claimed British security forces’ collusion given the sophistication of the no-warning devices.

The current Dublin government needs to use its influence to ‘rein in’ the demands of Provisional Sinn Fein in the Northern Ireland Assembly to ensure a dissident Loyalist movement does not emerge within the Protestant community, as has developed within the republican community.

With Provisional Sinn Fein now a significant voice in the Dail under former West Belfast MP Gerry Adams, Southern nationalists can no longer dismiss the ‘Sinn Fein issue’ as a solely Northern Ireland problem.

The Orange Order and the other Loyal Orders have a similar role to play in channelling Protestant frustration over a lack of benefits, the Union flag debacle, the parades controversies, and the Maze shrine debate, away from street or paramilitary violence.

For years, traditional Loyal Order parades through nationalist areas took place unhindered. But ever since the notorious Obins Street confrontation in Portadown in the mid-1980s, nationalists suddenly saw the benefits of forming so-called residents’ groups to oppose the Loyal Orders.

Republicans had clearly recognised the role of Orangeism within the Protestant political community. Orangeism was the cement which bound the various strands of the pro-Union community together. Break those ties, and republicanism could severely – perhaps fatally – weaken Unionism.

The Orange lodge was the place where the middle class Protestant businessman could sit side by side with the Protestant working class labourer and call each other ‘brother’ as equals. If republicanism could drive a wedge between the Unionist middle class and the Loyalist working class, it would make strides in weakening the Union.

Drumcree was republicanism’s master stroke. The violence of 1997 and 1998 succeeded in driving that wedge between the two Protestant classes. The Union flag protests has seen the British security forces confront Loyalists on the streets of Northern Ireland in a manner which would have been unthinkable in 1974.

Orangeism has been effectively backed into a political corner because of the parades disputes. Part of this has been due to the domination of so-called nationalist residents’ groups by hardline republican spokesmen. The nationalist residents’ groups knew such people would be a ‘red flag to the Orange bull’ and the outcome was predictable – the Loyal Orders would not hold face to face talks with residents’ groups for an agreed solution.

Had the Loyal Orders entered negotiations with the residents’ groups and called the republicans’ bluff over parades, many so-called contentious parades routes may never have existed.

This situation has forced the Orange Order in particular to re-invent itself as a cultural organisation rather than as a Salvationist religious movement. The emphasis has been on a ‘family day out’ experience rather than spreading the evangelical Gospel of ‘Jesus Saves’ to a wide audience.

Orangeism is now at the crossroads. Religiously, it must return to its roots as an evangelical Christian outreach movement akin to the Qualifications of an Orangeman oath. Politically, it must act as a Protestant civil rights movement to ensure that as many Unionists as possible are not only registered to vote, but come out to vote on polling day.

In a Northern Ireland population of around 1.8 million, a few thousand first preference votes could see Provisional Sinn Fein returned as the largest party in the Stormont Assembly at the next expected poll in 2016 – the centenary of the failed Easter Rising.

All four of the Loyal Orders must rekindle and develop their links with religious Protestantism’s two dozen-plus separate and independent denominations, all claiming to be the inheritors of the Reformed Faith.

While many Loyalist young people are joining the growing marching band fraternity in Northern Ireland and the Southern Border counties, how many of these young people are also joining the Loyal Orders?

The Loyal Orders must also step up to the mark in working for the Protestant working class. There is the real danger the Orders will become viewed as nothing more than middle class Unionist rural outfits who don’t care about the austerity cuts facing many urban working class Loyalist communities.

In 1998, the year of the Good Friday Agreement, I completed my Masters in politics at Queen’s University, Belfast. The title of the thesis was: “The contribution of the Orange Order to the development of Pan Loyalism during the period 1968 to the present day.”

Having witnessed the splits, rows and fragmentation within Unionism since completing that thesis, my conclusion is that the Orange Order still has to make that much-needed contribution to Pan Loyalism.

If the IRA, SDLP and the Dublin government can form the so-called Pan Nationalist Front, what is stopping the Orange Order from becoming once again the cement which formed a Pan Loyalist Front? Time is not on Orangeism’s side.

As frustration grows within the Protestant community, at some time Loyalism may return to Orangeism’s real roots – in the violent Peep O’Day Boys who carried out raids on Catholics. US President Barack Obama laid great emphasis during his G8 speeches on the type of society which would be inherited by Ulster’s youth.

Does Orangeism and the rest of the Loyal Orders want that legacy to be that it actually – unlike in 2013 – it abandoned the Loyalist community in its time of need? I was a member of the Orange Order for over two decades and literally donned the sash my father wore.

I only left the Orders because of the pressures of writing. I want to be able to tell future generations that I was proud to be an Orangeman, as I remember the many religious events which I attended where the Gospel of Jesus Christ was preached. I especially love to hear my father, a senior Orange and Black chaplain and Presbyterian minister, preach these Gospel sermons to the assembled brethren, Sir Knights, band members and members of the public.

Ideally, I want the Loyal Orders to follow Christ’s example as set out on His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew’s Gospel. The Loyal Orders are at their crossroads – religiously, socially and politically. Let’s hope and pray they make the correct decision for the good of the Loyalist community.

Why does the Loyalist family fear its own diversity?

In a recent debate a fellow loyalist exclaimed to me how most loyalists found my left wing brand of loyalism bewildering.   It took me back I can’t deny it.  None of us are impervious to the sting of disagreement where agreement was sought and so I have been pondering the gentleman’s statement ever since. 

The Principles of Loyalism, which is a constitutional document of the Progressive Unionist Party (and can be downloaded from its website), is a bold and necessary framework.  It is from this document that I take my political counsel.  Its four outlined principles are as follows…

1. The material wellbeing of the people of Northern Ireland
2. Civil and religious liberties for all the people of Northern Ireland
3. Equality of Union (in other words, if it is good enough for the people of London, Fife or Cardiff, then it is good enough for the people of Belfast, Londonderry and Newry )
4. The reserved right to resist any infringement upon any of the above

These are all arguably left leaning principles and none are the least bit inconsistent with political Unionism or cultural Loyalism.

This spun me into a train of thought regarding the PUL family.  This is a wonderfully warm metaphor to which I affectionately subscribe, always have and always will.  The Loyalist family is and should always be just that, a family.  This is a stark contrast to the much more cold and militant movement that is Irish nationalism.

But let us pursue that metaphor properly.  What have we all experienced of families?  A family has many members, some of which we may not particularly like in the personal sense.  Some we may at times find embarrassing, and some we outright can’t stand!  But being a family is supposed to be more important than that, and it is, usually at Christmas; the paper hats, burying of hatchets and exchanging of hugs (or smile-punctuated handshakes) show that family is indeed an important thing.

For the Loyalist family to sustain it must remain so.  Diversity is strength, and the real-politic debates of left vs. right, conservative vs. liberal must take place with full gusto and purpose within the greater PUL sphere.  Isolation or hostile language toward another PUL (as opposed to the presentation of a reasoned argument against his/hers) will be a harmful habit to adopt, and we do so at our peril.

The debates within Unionism are fascinating, and the greatest aspect of them lately has been the tidal-wave of young PUL talent bursting onto the scene through both social media and community activism.

Let’s encourage respectful and fruitful political debate within Unionism, but never to an exclusionary degree, because then we foster the actual demise of the family.

I read recently that the new party NI21 about which there has been plenty of main-stream media bluster shall declare itself Unionist reluctantly????  A showcase, as if one was needed, for the consequences of the exclusion of unionist peripheral argument.

The chap who questioned my left-leaning social politics and I have since debated much, and get on just fine.  We will no doubt disagree again, we shall no doubt challenge each other again, we shall no doubt fail to reach consensus on certain issues.  But we shall always return to chat.  We shall always get on when it comes down to it.

Why?

We’re family.

William Ennis

Progressive Unionist

“FOR GOD?–AND ULSTER?”

Young Jason Burke, recently entered a very interesting article concerning our Loyalist Working Class Culture. As one of the old Volunteers of the early seventies, I was very interested in reading the opinions of one of the young men, on whom our countries political and geographical future depends.
Possibly it is a sign of the times, hopefully it was unintentional youthful inexperience, but in listing his four main components of our Culture, Jason neglected to include the main cornerstone and rock, upon which the unshakable foundations of our Loyalist Working Class Culture has been constructed.
I am of course referring to our Protestant Faith and the sincerely sworn oath of our Fore-Fathers, “For God and Ulster”.
To our Fore-Fathers this Sacred Oath, was much more than mere words on a badge or a casual throw away drunken slogan and those of us today who casually, carelessly, and unthinkingly misuse this Sacred Oath, do so at our Countries peril.
The long troubled history of the Nation of Israel, should be a perfect lesson for us all on just how dramatically a Nations fortunes can rise or plummet, as a result of its peoples sincerity or lack of sincerity, with regard to our Creator.

During the past conflict, many of us who originally proudly proclaimed, “For God and Ulster,” slowly but surely excluded God from the equation, as we sought to repay indiscriminate sectarian terrorism, with an even greater dose of indiscriminate sectarian terrorism.
Slowly but surely in defence of the democratic right of the people of Northern Ireland to decide their own future and despite our original sincerity, we foolishly, gradually abandoned the moral high ground in the pursuit of, the satisfaction of revenge.
The end result of this distancing of ourselves from God was that, most of us eventually ended up in Long Kesh or dead.
With greatest respect to young Jason and Davy Ervines dear Wife, I sincerely believe that it is not a return to the culture of obsolete, totally useless languages, such as Irish and Ulster Scots, that our young people need.
I believe that what is required, is a sincere return to the basic Cultural Foundations of, our Protestant Faith and the sincerity of the Sacred Sworn Oath of our Fore-Fathers, “For God and Ulster.”
The totally useless, obsolete Irish  language, has long been used by the Roman Catholic Church and the Roman Catholic education boards, as a means of deliberate legalised discrimination, to deny Protestant teachers employment in Roman Catholic Schools, while at the same time Roman Catholic teachers have been able to seek and receive employment, throughout the entire education system.
I have absolutely no objection to anyone learning Irish or Ulster Scots at their own expense, in their own time, however I believe that, obsolete totally useless languages, train-spotting, tiddly winks and blow-football, should not be unwillingly subsidised by the vast majority of taxpaying non-participants.
Jason rightly points out that Irish was once a part of upper-class Protestant Culture, at a time when the vast majority of the Protestant Working Class, were unable to write in either English or Irish. It was however never a part of Loyalist Working Class Culture.
In reality the return of the Irish Language is about as culturally desirable to Working Loyalists, as a return to sitting with frozen clinkers in a leaking outside toilet in the back yard, on a freezing cold winters night with a damp ink-smudged page of the Belfast Telegraph for a toilet roll.
Personally I have absolutely no desire for the return of either.

Charlie Freel. 

MLK: A SHRINE OR RECONCILIATION CEBTRE?

Why are the DUP so intent on facilitating SF’s motion of a shrine for the justification of IRA violence and murder ? Only those within the DUP can answer this , yet they remain silent when challenged by victims and those opposed to anything other than the Maze being raised to the ground . It’s evident that they’re on the defensive , at present they’re attacking anyone from the unionist community with such venom not seen since the attacks on Trimble’s UUP a decade or more ago. We see puppets for Robinson attacking those who speak out against their agenda to go ahead with this centre, which will include the actual hospital wing were Sands died . Only today we had Jimmy Spratt calling victims groups nutters and Donaldson recently stated that he’d had family members murdered too , a poor excuse to justify the DUP’s stance I must say , but yet , who hasn’t ? Is his families victims above mine or yours in that his opinion is more worthy than any of ours ? If the DUP would listen to the growing list including the loyal orders , victims groups , all the unionist political parties bar the UPRG and groupings such as the UDA , they’d realise that bar their party alone and those connected to the UDA no-one wants anything except the bulldozers to occupy the Maze . Are the DUP so caught up in this power sharing appeasement that they don’t realise that the likes of Bik McFarlane , Gerry Kelly , Dermot Finucane etc will be catapulted into world wide stardom for their exploits when the prisoners from H7 escaped , Kelly shot an officer from point blank range in the head , Finucane stabbed 2 officers more than 3 times each , numerous others inflicted untold violence onto unarmed officers without hesitation in injuring them to the point that 27 officers received serious injury. Without doubt this was a great plan , executed to precise detail and I’ve yet to mention the hunger strikes etc which the IRA gained great support from. Do you honestly believe anyone is coming to the Maze to view loyalism or prison officer life ? Seriously ? Are the DUP so misguided that they don’t know this or do they and they’ve made some deal with SF ( not for the first time ) regarding another subject which allows SF to have the Maze as their own ? Who knows apart from those within the DUP. I see no reason why the hospital wing were Sands etc died should be kept , listening to Donaldson say it’s not part of the Maze redevelopment I’ve this question , why keep it then ? Are the DUP denying that SF/IRA are not going to turn the Maze into a shrine to hunger strikers and that escape let alone trying to justify IRA men as pow’s instead of criminals? I’ve heard that Republicans are planning to invest into tourism, like the open top double decker bus kind of set up , only involving those who served time in the Maze taking the tours and they’re going to target Irish America , sounds about right if you think about it , cruise ships will be targeted on arrival to Belfast , something I suspect is starting to develop as a taxi driver told me that he took visitors to the international wall in West Belfast and that his visiting fare was told that when they return in 5 years they’d be able to go to the Maze to view the great escape and were Sands died with those who fought the Brits and brought them to their knees. Is this what we’re going to have happen to something that should , in my opinion , be ripped apart and torn down , respect , shared future , equals etc , all SF language , how about respecting your victims and halting this project now before we have people taking out judicial reviews etc as to why it shouldn’t/should go ahead .The only outcome I see is to hold a poll , quite simple , who is for , who is against , a simple yes or no , bring your Id to your local council office , register and vote for or against redevelopment , winner takes all so to speak , the message is quite clear from the Unionist community , tear down the Maze now , I actually believe that the Maze shrine has always been Sf’s agenda and they opposed the national stadium being there so they could have what we’ve ended up at today , a shrine to the IRA cause . In closing, i refer to the words of David Ervine, quote,  ” Bulldoze it, too much pain, too many victims, it is a blot on the landscape. Lets bring down the curtain on this part of our history”.

THE MAD MONK