7 August 1997 Edition
Back issue: The `new' RUC
Scratch the `new' RUC and the colour Orange appears. That is the lesson learnt by many nationalists people in Downpatrick last Monday night when the loyalist thugs, in and out of uniform, turned their attentions to peaceful protestors who objected to a Paisley rally through the nationalist and, up to now, mainly peaceful town.
The Paisley triumphalist march was allowed to go through the town despite local objections and the RUC made sure that vocal and active objections alike, along the route, were batoned, punched and kicked out of the way to allow the Paisleyites the rite of passage.
On the other hand a hunger strike commemoration through nationalist West Belfast on the same evening was declared illegal by the RUC who photographed marchers for prosecution at a later date. In the past, republican marchers through republican areas have been physically attacked and scores of thousands of pounds of fines and jail terms have been imposed on members of H-Block/Armagh committees throughout the Six Counties (mimicked also by the Free State) for taking part in last year's demonstrations.
SDLP Chief Whip Eddie McGrady said that the RUC's action in Downpatrick had `forfeited' them any right to nationalist support and that `20 years' work has gone down the drain'. However, the SDLP are unable to develop any further position on a state whose armed force is blatantly partisan and sectarian and it is at this juncture that their leadership becomes irrelevant and the IRA takes over.
The Paisley triumphalist march was allowed to go through the town despite local objections and the RUC made sure that vocal and active objections alike, along the route, were batoned, punched and kicked out of the way to allow the Paisleyites the rite of passage.
On the other hand a hunger strike commemoration through nationalist West Belfast on the same evening was declared illegal by the RUC who photographed marchers for prosecution at a later date. In the past, republican marchers through republican areas have been physically attacked and scores of thousands of pounds of fines and jail terms have been imposed on members of H-Block/Armagh committees throughout the Six Counties (mimicked also by the Free State) for taking part in last year's demonstrations.
SDLP Chief Whip Eddie McGrady said that the RUC's action in Downpatrick had `forfeited' them any right to nationalist support and that `20 years' work has gone down the drain'. However, the SDLP are unable to develop any further position on a state whose armed force is blatantly partisan and sectarian and it is at this juncture that their leadership becomes irrelevant and the IRA takes over.