Sorry, when did we start being shocked at sectarianism here?
Is sectarianism not as familiar to us as Belfast baps?
Hard to fathom, maybe, after nearly 30 years of peace that it still exists in the open, but not shocking.
Last week a controlled school in Derry granted more than half a million pounds for sports facilities found itself at the centre of a ‘sectarian row’ at Stormont after allegations about ‘preferential treatment’ by the DUP, which it denied.
Last month graffiti on a dual language street sign in south Belfast was condemned as ‘sectarian and anti-Irish’.
Not so long ago there were chants about the IRA and the death of Queen Elizabeth from the stands of Windsor Park during a football match.
And not long before that the home of a disabled boy was attacked in a new housing estate in what police called a sectarian hate crime.
Look at the ordeal East Belfast GAA club have faced as they have tried to train at Henry Jones Playing Fields.
Eight security alerts, the park being closed off five times to allow police to tackle incidents which could pose a threat to the public, five devices, a bomb threat and a threatening letter.
Those behind the integrated Irish language nursery and primary school Scoil na Seolta in east Belfast have also faced a sectarian backlash, with banners being placed on the site telling children they are not wanted there.
Those are just some of the incidents. Look it up for yourself to see exactly where Northern Ireland is in 2025 with our beautiful non-sectarian utopia. It’s not a pretty picture.
But I’m not sure how anyone can still be shocked by sectarianism here. It is still rife, normal. Why on Earth would we imagine it isn’t?
People are doing great work in pockets, but as a society we have done very little in trying to meaningfully eradicate that cancer.
Unless I’m not getting it and by some warped standards our marching and bonfire seasons, the singing of sectarian songs, the murals, the graffiti, and the lamppost flag-flying escapades are doing some kind of good that I haven’t picked up on?
The sad fact is it that it’s threaded through our lives.
Granted, it’s not as blatant as once was. At times it may be whispered rather than roared, but it’s still there.
Sectarian mindsets and sectarian opinions are still smirked at, ignored, laughed off, normalised.
It’s in distrust, it’s in the paint sprayed on the walls, it’s in political discourse shouted across the chambers in our house of power.
Sectarianism secures the flags to the lampposts of new developments and bleeds into the paper hung from railings that tell people they are not welcome in certain areas; it holds the stolen poppy wreaths and flags firmly in place on our bonfires during the summer months.
Why would we think it would be any different when we do nothing to rid this place of it, bar enthusiastically shaking our heads, blaming other people for its appearance and feeling glad it’s around someone else’s door and not ours?
I once hoped that sectarianism would be eradicated once the generation who still hold the baggage of our troubled past died out. But now I’m not so sure.
They are passing troubled and hateful mindsets down to the next generation like treasured heirlooms which will doom this place for an eternity.