As another marching season winds down, I once again ask the question: what is it all about? Is it about celebrating loyalist culture in a dignified manner or is it about offending everything Catholic, nationalist and Irish? The aftermath of the ‘celebrations’ is a litter-strewn mess along the parade routes, toxic remains of environmentally damaging bonfires and a reaffirmation of an anti-Catholic mindset.
I have made comparisons before with Northern Ireland and Israel: both states were set up to favour a particular religious denomination and the ‘chosen people’ in each case set about systematically subjugating the indigenous minority with little sympathy for the oppressed. Israelis and unionists accept no responsibility for the violence in their respective states and of course God is on their side.
If Palestinians and Catholics had just accepted their lowly, persecuted status then Israel and Northern Ireland would have been great wee countries. Israelis justify everything by labelling all victims as terrorists or terrorist sympathisers.
A similar situation existed here, though not on the same scale. There was a total lack of empathy for Catholic victims, who were also labelled as terrorist sympathisers; the flag of the Parachute Regiment is flown in Drumahoe, as a taunting reminder of Bloody Sunday.
Young Protestants now have enough anti-Catholic venom in their veins to sustain them until St Patrick’s Day next year when the sectarian circus begins again.
The orchestrators of Catholic/nationalist negativity are very successful, but they are doing their young people a great disservice. Some go on to further education and encounter these ‘demonised’ Catholics for the first time and just don’t know how to react to them.
Ultimately it will be the nationalist people who will decide the destiny of Northern Ireland and anti-Catholic rhetoric will only make a united Ireland outcome more likely.
P McKenna, Newry, Co Down
