16 October 1997 Edition
Loyal sons go marching....where?
By Peadar Whelan
IT WAS THE BEST OF WEEKS, it was the worst of weeks to paraphrase Charles Dickens. Gerry Adams met with Tony Blair - a good sign that means, at last, a British leader was giving his imprimatur to the peace process.
And although Blair threatened that Sinn Fein would be shown the door if the party departed from the Mitchell Principles (a threat made no doubt to reassure unionists) the fact remains that the leader of the British government bridged a 70 year gap.
He acknowledged that without Sinn Fein there can be no solution and that the party's mandate cannot be ignored.
But the week had a familiar negative sound; that of marching unionist bands and negative rhetoric.
It was all heralded by the barely suppressed anger of the Ulster Unionist Party, angry that in an endorsement of the present IRA cessation the US administration left the IRA off its list of ``international terrorist organisations''.
More ominous was the rumblings coming from loyalist paramilitarism on Sunday. In an open display of military muscle, under the aegis of a march to mark the third anniversary of the loyalist ceasefire and in support of the release of loyalist prisoners UDA colour parties from throughout the north paraded unhindered in Belfast City centre. Also on Sunday up to 500 loyalists led by Spirit of Drumcree spokesperson Joel Patton attempted to block a nationalist parade in Fermanagh.
Within 24 hours the UDA was reported to have dropped out of the CLMC. What this means remains to be seen but it should be remembered that when the loyalist ceasefire was called the UDA's South Belfast Brigade, which stretches to Lisburn, was among the most strident critics of any ceasefire. (John Slane was shot dead last March by gunmen from the Village, part of the South Belfast Brigade, while in July Brian Morton, a UDA man, was killed by his own bomb near Seymour Hill in Dunmurry also in the South Belfast area).
Then with the well-orchestrated anti-Blair protest (carried out just after Blair shook Adams's hand) at the Connswater Shopping Centre on Monday the underlying feeling within unionism/loyalism is that it is back to the future with the threat of violence and the denial of equality to nationalists. The echoes of Burntollet, of the UWC strike and the Third Force are rumbling on.
IT WAS THE BEST OF WEEKS, it was the worst of weeks to paraphrase Charles Dickens. Gerry Adams met with Tony Blair - a good sign that means, at last, a British leader was giving his imprimatur to the peace process.
And although Blair threatened that Sinn Fein would be shown the door if the party departed from the Mitchell Principles (a threat made no doubt to reassure unionists) the fact remains that the leader of the British government bridged a 70 year gap.
He acknowledged that without Sinn Fein there can be no solution and that the party's mandate cannot be ignored.
But the week had a familiar negative sound; that of marching unionist bands and negative rhetoric.
It was all heralded by the barely suppressed anger of the Ulster Unionist Party, angry that in an endorsement of the present IRA cessation the US administration left the IRA off its list of ``international terrorist organisations''.
More ominous was the rumblings coming from loyalist paramilitarism on Sunday. In an open display of military muscle, under the aegis of a march to mark the third anniversary of the loyalist ceasefire and in support of the release of loyalist prisoners UDA colour parties from throughout the north paraded unhindered in Belfast City centre. Also on Sunday up to 500 loyalists led by Spirit of Drumcree spokesperson Joel Patton attempted to block a nationalist parade in Fermanagh.
Within 24 hours the UDA was reported to have dropped out of the CLMC. What this means remains to be seen but it should be remembered that when the loyalist ceasefire was called the UDA's South Belfast Brigade, which stretches to Lisburn, was among the most strident critics of any ceasefire. (John Slane was shot dead last March by gunmen from the Village, part of the South Belfast Brigade, while in July Brian Morton, a UDA man, was killed by his own bomb near Seymour Hill in Dunmurry also in the South Belfast area).
Then with the well-orchestrated anti-Blair protest (carried out just after Blair shook Adams's hand) at the Connswater Shopping Centre on Monday the underlying feeling within unionism/loyalism is that it is back to the future with the threat of violence and the denial of equality to nationalists. The echoes of Burntollet, of the UWC strike and the Third Force are rumbling on.