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16 July 1998 Edition

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Dúirt siad...

Catholics in isolated Catholic communities have been badly rattled in recent days, but at least they are still there. Isolated Catholics in Protestant communities are not so lucky. Soon there'll be no Catholics left in Carrickfergus or Dromore. Another couple of Drumcrees and Orange mobs will have burnt, intimidated or found a variety of other means to display their concept of religious and civil liberty to Catholics - which seems to be to watch as police escort Catholics out of the area.

Brian Feeney writing in the Irish News. Friday 10 July.

 


It's time for everybody to get real here. It's time for the Orange Order and for unionism to waken up. The reality is that the people we represent are no longer going to be second-class citizens in their own country.

Martin McGuinnness on the Garvaghy Road last Thursday.

 


An estimated 350,000 listeners to BBC Radio Ulster's Newsbreak yesterday to witness the row over the fact that Orange Order bosses were prepared to speak to a man who killed two Catholics, but were not willing to talk with Breandán Mac Cionnaith, an elected councillor.

Greg Harkin in the Examiner. Friday 10 July.

 


Unionist propaganda has been brilliant at emphasising the fears that gave rise to the `siege' mentality of many Ulster unionists. It has been equally brilliant at utterly ignoring the fact that those who feel themselves under `siege' actually corralled a substantial minority within their own `siege' state. We may impatiently respond that that was then and this is now. Unfortunately, then and now can not be so neatly segregated. For the mindset of the marchers at Drumcree is absolutely consistent with the core principles on which Northern Ireland was established.

Professor Joe Lee. Sunday Tribune, 12 July.

 


I think it is going to take violence to get us down that road. It will come to people being shot and the Protestant people are prepared for that. If it is the only way we will get down the road, then so be it.

Orange woman protestor at Drumcree. Sunday Times, 12 July.

 


I believe the Orange Order needs to call off its protests because we can't control them.

Orange Order chaplain William Bingham after the murder of three boys in Ballymoney, County Antrim.

 


The thunderous sounds of Lambeg drums being beaten on the main road just 50 feet from the Quinn household reverberated through the neat bungalow.

Report in the Irish News of Orangemen marching past the Quinn brothers' wake house.

 


This past week has offered more than its fair share of outrageous comments. But perhaps the most sickening came yesterday from DUP leader Ian Paisley. Deflecting criticism of the Orange Order after the deaths of three young children, he told an interviewer on ITN that the IRA had committed ``far worse murders'' during its 30-year campaign than those in Ballymoney.

Editorial in the Irish News. Tuesday 14 July.

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