FRFI 216 August/September 2010

Pitched battles

In July nationalist youth fought pitched battles with police in the Six Counties. Using provocative language Sinn Fein described the youth as ‘anti-social and criminal elements’ (Gerry Adams) and ‘Neanderthals’ (Martin McGuinness). West Belfast Sinn Fein representative Caral Ni Chuilin, said on television: ‘I will … be going to the statutory bodies, including the Housing Executive, the Housing Association, Social Services and passing information on. Anyone involved in that activity should not be allowed to live in this area.’[1]

The fighting was neither anti-social nor criminal. Tensions always run high during the Orange marching season, as Loyalists deliberately parade their supremacy through nationalist areas. In the nationalist St James area, residents fought with police and Loyalist mobs over the weekend of 3/4 July. Over the same weekend, disturbances took place in the nationalist Short Strand and also in Ardoyne. Officers of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) responded with plastic bullets.

In Ardoyne the Orange Order refused to negotiate with the Parades Commission. Their intransigence was rewarded when the marchers were allowed to pass twice through the area on 12 July. Residents called for a sit-down protest and were violently attacked by riot-clad PSNI officers. At 7.30pm, around 200 Loyalists broke away and entered Ardoyne in order to attack 30 nationalist homes. One woman in her garden was reported to have had her throat cut. Another man ended up in intensive care after being beaten with a concrete bench by a mob of 20 Loyalists. FRFI spoke to local residents who were outraged that the PSNI refused to act. The media blackout of the attack compounded their anger. What followed were several nights of disturbances as nationalists fought with riot police. Opposition to Loyalist parades also took place in Armagh and Derry.

2010 will be the last year of operation for the Parades Commission which has long been opposed by the Orange Order. A new law is proposed, equating sectarian marches with political protests and regulating public meetings.[2] The Bill requires organisers of any public march or assembly to give 37 working days’ notice where it is believed that 50 people or more will attend. Many believe that the proposed law would breach article 11 of the Human Rights Act, the right to peaceful assembly.

The underlying contradictions in the north of Ireland are once again beginning to assert themselves. The economy is in crisis and social deprivation is concentrated in nationalist areas. The crisis in the prisons is escalating (see page 15). As FRFI goes to press, major arrests of Republicans are being carried out. Self-defence for the nationalist community is once again becoming a political issue.

Paul Mallon

1 www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_JVM6rXPpA&

2 The Bill can be read at: www.nidirect.gov.uk/public-assemblies-parades-and-protests-in-northern-ireland-2.pdf.