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Ireland's political and cultural magazine
September 2016 2 3
N
ewish Northern Ireland First Minister
Arlene Foster is in the middle of a
successful charm offensive. She is
popular, even with some National-
ists. The vortex into normality
engulfs ever more of the increasingly hateless
political classes despite themselves.
We have recently emerged from one of the
quietest marching seasons since the Troubles
began. Any friction was small-scale. The last
highly-contentious parades to survive into the
present are the annual July 12th morning and
evening parades by Orange lodges and associ-
ated bands from Belfast’s Upper Crumlin Road
area. These pass the Catholic Ardoyne area.
The Parades Commission has refused per-
mission for the return leg of this. In recent
years, there has been serious violence on it.
This year, there was a short stand-off, then
some skirmishing. Only one of the lodges
involved in the parade took part in protests.
There have been talks between representa-
tives of the Orange Order and Nationalist
residents. Both parties, in principle, accept the
need for dialogue. Nationalist representatives
are willing to accept a march, while Orange rep-
resentatives accept provocative behaviour is
unacceptable.
Overall, the great majority of Protestants
believe the Loyal Orders have a right to
march. However, pointless street
violence is a turn-off.
There are internal tensions,
with a perception that the
more intransigent sections of
the Orange contingent come
from areas with few Catholics.
Some Loyalists disparagingly
refer to them as ‘seaside
Orangemen’, whose intransigence
fuels violence around interface areas.
Then they go home, leaving community
workers on the ground to pick up the pieces.
Some Orangemen feel that these drive an
agenda of refusing to talk to Nationalist resi-
dents – because they don’t have to face the
issue in their own areas.
Within the Orange community, there is also
a tiredness. Many feel ‘protested out’ after long
protests at Drumcree in Portadown and Ardoyne
were unsuccessful.
On the Catholic/Nationalist side there is no
great love of Orange. However, there is also an
acceptance that marches are a part of life, and
no great appetite to oppose them as long as
they are properly conducted, and there is
consultation.
Marching, of course, has been a lively issue
in the North, and Ulster, since the Orange Order
was established in the 1790s. Even in quiet peri-
ods like the early 1950s there were occasional
riots in the curtelage of Orange processions.
However, what the summer produced was the
unexpected. We’re used to Somme-visiting
Martin McGuinness taking tea with royalty but
no writer would have been bold enough to make
up the contact between flag protestor
Jamie Bryson and Sinn Féin’s Assem-
bly Finance Committee Chair,
Dáithí McKay.
Bryson came to prominence
as an organiser of protests
when Belfast City Council
voted to cease flying the Union
Jack every day on City Hall. He
was against Sinn Féin being in
government. However, there he
was undoubtedly, exchanging friendly
messages with McKay.
McKay, one of Sinn Féin’s most able perform-
ers, has resigned. Bryson’s limited credibility
as a hardliner has been tainted.
It is unclear who leaked the messages.
Bryson has strenuously denied responsibility.
He is, though, the main suspect.
The affair has damaged Sinn Féin’s image of
discipline and control. Bryson is a loose
cannon. He had good information on the actions
of NAMA in the North: this obviously came from
the anti-Robinson faction in the DUP. If Sinn
Féin is established to have been working with
him they will look far worse than duplicitous:
they will look stupid. It is interesting that Frank
Connolly reported in Village last year that Gerry
Adams was “telegraphing” messages to ensure
Peter Robinson knew that unless he resurrected
the suspended executive Sinn Féin would play
hard ball on his Nama travails.
Meanwhile, this controversy has taken the
focus away from the sale of NAMA properties in
the North at significantly below value. There is
no evidence that former First Minister Peter
Robinson engaged in any illegal activity. How-
ever, several of those involved in the sales were
perceived as close to Robinson. There are still
big questions to be answered: the Bryson-
McKay controversy has (to date) diverted
attention from this.
The summer also showed how the Sinn Féin
– DUP arrangement is still stable. Foster’s polit
-
ical honeymoon will, naturally, not last but she
has people skills that Robinson lacked.
It is significant that the DUP did not call for
the head of Finance Minister Máirtín Ó Muileoir
until late in the day – and is not threatening the
Executive on the issue. DUP sources see the
Executive as solid.
There were unexpected developments on
bonfires, too. As expected Sinn Féin posters
were burned on Loyalist bonfires round the
12th. They were also burned on a bonfire built
by alienated young people in Derry’s Bogside.
That youth alienation, across the community, is
a bigger threat than the growth of Republican
or Loyalist dissidents.
NIce
Normality quietly musters in the North
by Anton McCabe
Many feel
‘protested
out’
McKay welcomes Bryson to Stormont Nama Inquiry
