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FOIA Number: 2016-0920-F
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Collection/Record Group:
Clinton Presidential Records
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Chief of Staff
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Tom Shea
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23
7
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Page 9
LEVEL 5 - 4 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 Newspaper Publishing PLC
The Independent
July 29, 1996, Monday
SECTION: NEWS; Page 6
LENGTH: 794 words
HEADLINE: Sectarian 'plague' revisits community; Gloom over peace talks: Today's
negotiations must quell the hatred unleashed after Drumcree. Michael Streeter
reports
BYLINE: Michael Streeter
BODY:
Like the return of a cyclical plague, the language and pursuit of
sectarianism once again haunts Northern Ireland.
After 18 months of relative moderation, the bloody fiasco of Drumcree - when
an Orange parade past a Catholic area provoked Nationalist fury and days of
violence - have re-ignited hatreds which optimists hoped had gone for ever. Its
re-emergence will be one of the main problems the all-party peace talks, due to
start in Stormont today, must tackle.
This resurgent sectarianism has revealed itself in many forms: nationalist
campaigns to boycott Protestant businesses; desecration of churches; the
hounding of families, many of them Catholic, from their homes; daubing of
sectarian slogans, and attacks on schools.
Phrases such "Fenian bastard" and "Fascist Orangemen" are back in currency.
In a strange transference of language, a nationalist cry after the Drumcree
seige was "let's burn the black bastards out" - a sentiment both sectarian and
racist in tone.
The RUC were decribed as "Fenians" by Orangemen during the Drumcree
blockade, but after the parade the same officers were attacked as "Orange scum"
by nationalists.
The outbreak of verbal hostilities may even have taken its cue from the
highest level after Irish and British premiers John Bruton and John Major traded
insults over the decision to let the parade go ahead.
Some people cannot remember such hostility in the air; but did this naked
sectarianism ever really go away duirng the months of the ceasefire?
Dr Richard English, lecturer in politics at Queen's University, Belfast,
thinks not: "The rising tension of the last few weeks has brought to the surface
what has been latent throughout the ceasefire.
"What seemed to have gone - for example, the language of sectarianism - has
boiled up again. People feel they can say what, privately, they were thinking
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Page 10
The Independent, July 29, 1996
all along.
"There has just been a masking of sectarianism in the last couple of years, "
he said. Those who thought it had disappeared had been naive, he added.
Church leaders are caught in the crossfire. In a recent statement, the
Presbytarian church called for compromise on all sides but added that those who
started actions which then led to violence could not shirk responsibility - a
reference to the inflexible unionist stance at Drumcree. DUP MP Peter Robinson
immediately attacked these words as "pathetic
an outrage and a disgrace. "
Perhaps Mr Robinson should have read another part of the churchmen's
statement. "The apostle James warned us that even a spark of an inappropriate
word can set the whole place on fire, with fire from hell, it read.
The church's Moderator, Dr. Harry Allen conceals his dismay at Mr Robinson's
remarks and told the Independent that he wants politicians on all sides to use
the language of love.
"Even if people disagree, they have be careful and temperate. The old saying
'careless words cost lives' still applies.'
Bill Tosh, chairman of the CBI in Northern Ireland, admits he was "shocked"
by the return of the violence and language which he thought a relic of the past.
Such mindless sectarianism, he feels, which includes attacks on businesses, will
cost the economy more than pounds 20m. "People still seem not to realise that
they are shooting themselves in the foot.
One useful barometer of public mood can be found in the letters' pages of
local newspapers. Billy Kennedy of the unionist Newsletter says the paper has
extended its columns from three days a week to daily, and says correspondence is
more strident than before. Tom Collins, editor of the nationalist Irish News
says he cannot recall as strong a public reaction as he has seen over
Drumcree.
SDLP vice-chairman, Joe Byrne, points a finger firmly at the events of
Drumcree as the cause of unease and alienation now felt by nationalists. "This is
almost a throwback to feelings they had 20 years ago."
Equally, he condemns boycotts of Protestant businesses. "That is a road back
to the Dark Ages, " he says, urging political leaders to send a positive message
to all communities by making the Stormont talks work.
It is not all is gloom, however. Father Brian Lennon ,a respected
commentator, wrote recently that it was "nonsense" to suggest the Province is
slipping back to 1969. "It is time now for us to get things into perspective,
he wrote in the Irish News. 'In part, this means facing our own sectarianism. "
One can only hope this positive mood is more telling than the fears of
Ulster Unionist councillor Derek Hussey, whose constitutents face an economic
boycott in County Tyrone.
"Perhaps," he says of the violence at and after Drumcree, "these events
reached deep into people's true feelings."
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Page 11
The Independent, July 29, 1996
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 31, 1996
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Page 12
LEVEL 5 - 5 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Irish Times
The Irish Times
July 20, 1996, CITY EDITION
SECTION: NEWS FEATURES; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 2654 words
HEADLINE: Talking and compromise key to North peace
BYLINE: By ANDY POLLAK
BODY:
SHEILA CHILLINGWORTH, born in Dublin, formerly worked as a school
psychologist in Catholic west Belfast. She is an active member of the Church of
Ireland who since her retirement has run schemes for children with reading
problems in Ballymurphy.
THE POLITICIANS all seem to have I been demented from Paddy Mayhew, who I
always thought was a sensible man, downwards. Attempts at dialogue should have
started a year ago after the last Drumcree clash. When they came, they came far
too late the church leaders only had a day or a day and a half to find a
solution when they became involved.
I don't blame Sir Hugh Annesley either. He was suddenly very human when he
spoke about being sick of being caught between the two sides. One felt a
terrible sympathy for him.
It didn't help either seeing the police acting as they did against the people
sitting on Garvaghy Road. Their actions only heightened those people's
perception that they were second class citizens, as indeed they are.
The politicians behaved just as one would have anticipated. That's the
frightening thing they don't change. I was reading Nelson Mandela's
autobiography recently and one phrase leapt out at me. He was looking at his
jailers but every so often he saw a little glimpse of humanity in one of them,
and that made all the difference.
That's the problem with our politicians. They look at the other side and they
don't see human beings they just see the other side. They don't see what
Mandela saw that basically everyone is human with different perceptions.
As far as I can see there is no trust at all among the politicians, but there
is trust among the people.
When I came up here in 1949 I was a right bigot. My father was a rector who
had seen his congregation shrinking because of Ne Temere and other things and I
was genuinely frightened of Catholics. I was also afraid of Northern
Protestants. I've since become very fond of both sides. I've changed totally and
I see no reason why they shouldn't.
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Page 13
The Irish Times, July 20, 1996
MAY BLOOD is a community worker on Belfast's Shankill Road and a lifelong
trade union activist. A Protestant and proud to be a Prod she was the election
agent for the Northern Ireland Women's Coalition.
PROBABLY WE had deluded ourselves that peace was more permanent than it was.
After 20 months of relative peace we thought all the bogey men had gone, but
last week's events proved that to be false.
As a community worker I found that very depressing. It was almost as though
we had climbed a mountain and at the then were knocked down to the bottom again.
Now it's a question of whether we can climb it again.
The strong community relations between people who have built up a good
relationship living side by side over the years won't be affected. That
relationship helped community relations last week to survive under extreme and
dangerous conditions.
A fortnight earlier the Whiterock Orange Parade which marches on to the
Springfield Road on the last Saturday in June passed off without incident,
although throughout the Troubles there has always been a history of violence at
it.
This year, because of the good strong relationships built up since the 1995
parade, the people of the area were determined that it would not divide them,
and came to an agreement.
I put that down to real community relations between people who realise there
are two cultures in the area and both have to be addressed. For the past year
people have tried to understand each other's culture, led by people like Sam
Burch from the Cornerstone Community and Gerry Reynolds from the Clonard
Monastery.
Political leadership during last week's crisis left a lot to be desired. The
unionist leaders, in particular, should have thought a bit before issuing
statements like Drumcree is unionism's last stand.
As for withdrawing from the Forum until Drumcree was over, I understood they
were at the talks and in the Forum to solve, not make, problems.
KATE KELLY is chairwoman of the Women's Information Group, which brings
together women's groups, mainly in the greater Belfast area. She was formerly
the leader of a Belfast Action Team co-ordinating community development in west
Belfast, and an outreach worker with the Opsahl Commission. She comes from a
Catholic background.
I WAS demented and despairing the media coverage of last week's events,
listening to the politicians blaming everyone else and not taking any
responsibility and then lecturing us, the public.
On the other hand, I felt some hope when I saw Aideen McGinley, chief
executive of Fermanagh council, talking about the goodness of people in
Enniskillen after the bomb there, and the positive ways in which people related.
When David Ervine speaks, he too seems to acknowledge that what he's saying
is being listened to by people of very different views there's a real
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Page 14
The Irish Times, July 20, 1996
sensitivity there. Similarly, when members of the Northern Ireland Women's
Coalition appear on radio and TV, they're at least constructive and inclusive.
They don't exclude you in contrast, I don't even hear the mainstream politicians
any more.
The politicians have to find a way to understand there is more in their lives
in Northern Ireland which they share than which separates them. The Irish
dimension is basically a distraction which isolates Protestants, making them
fearful and feeling that they and their culture are not honoured. That's what I
learned from the Opsahl Commission it allowed people to express their views and
dignified them by listening courteously and taking them seriously.
By now we should have realised that violence is directly related to self
confidence in socially deprived areas. If people haven't got a feeling of
ownership over their lives, they will turn to violence. Similarly, Orangemen
don't feel they have any ownership over their future. It should be a government
priority to fund community initiatives in areas like Garvaghy Road and its
Protestant equivalents.
BARBARA LOMAS is head of politics at Belfast Royal Academy, a large north
Belfast Protestant grammar school with some Catholic pupils. She is a
practising member of the Church of Ireland.
WHEN TEACHING 16 and 17 year olds about the nature of politics, the first
thing I say to them is there are different opinions and they have to listen to
them all before they make up their minds where they stand. Over the past
fortnight I have wished many times that somebody would get our politicians to do
the same.
I think something is needed to force all sides to sit down and talk properly.
I remember listening to a lecture by Padraig O'Malley (Massachusetts based
author of several authoritative books on Northern Ireland) at Queen's University
recently. He said no major disaster had occurred to force the sides in Northern
Ireland to leave their trenches and meet in the middle.
After nearly two years of peace the politicians are still debating whether
they should talk at all, who should chair those talks, and what preconditions
they will lay down for talking. Any sense of urgency seems to be missing. Last
week demands a little more listening and talking to rather than talking at in
the future.
Meanwhile people in our divided society who have been trying to move into
nicer houses in mixed areas over the past two years are again being subject to
what the papers call 'ethnic cleansing', and being forced back into whatever
houses can be offered to them in areas where they feel safe.
The unionist leadership has to look carefully at how it voices the fears of
the community it represents and to remember that there has to be compromise if
progress is to be made. Also I don't think the SDLP appreciates the alien at ion
the Protestant community feels.
For example, if you listen to the Protestants in areas of Northern Ireland in
which they are a minority, there is a sense that the Irish Government speaks for
nationalists, the British government is neutral, but they have no one to rely on
except themselves.
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Page 15
The Irish Times, July 20, 1996
HELENA SCHLINDWEIN is co-ordinator of the A Action for Locally Managing
Stress centre in Derry, which helps stress sufferers, particularly from
political violence. She was a candidate for the NIWC.
IN ONE sense, last week could wreck the peace process totally, yet in another
it could be like the lancing of a boil which might allow healing to take place.
In recent years sufficient people have risen above their tribal stances and see
the humanity of the other side. Good work has been done by cross community
workers who have developed great respect for each other.
I would hope that what happened in Portadown with the unionist leadership
taking stances which seemed almost surreal wouldn't happen elsewhere. My
experience of working with unionist people in Derry is that many want to
dissociate themselves from what happened there.
It's vitally important that people in cross community work should maintain
contact with each other. There is great isolation in this work, anyway, when you
step out from your community and work on issues like rape and battered women
which are deemed a distraction from the national question, and not men's
business.
Events like Drumcree isolate you even more. You have to be either Protestant
or Catholic and are not allowed to work between the trenches. Anything that is
not to do with the constitutional question or the national question is seen as
'soft' politics. Women's and children's rights are not serious business but
nationalist and unionist rights are.
Having said that, nationalists in Northern Ireland waited last week with
bated breath for justice which did not happen. In Derry the local Sinn Fein
politicians and the community groups have worked hard to channel people's anger
constructively.
If that hadn't happened last weekend's riots could have been a lot worse. I
hope that kind of leadership will continue and include discussions with others
coming up to the Apprentice Boys march on 10th August.
GEMMA BROLLY is manager of the Newry Volunteer Bureau, which has nearly
500 volunteers working in community projects in the south Down area. She has
worked widely in community work in Newry, Armagh and Belfast.
LAST WEEK'S events have isolated band angered the nationalist community,
including many moderates. The issue of second class citizenship has come back
with a vengeance. I have met three people in the past week who are talking
publicly about getting out of Northern Ireland. People fear what's ahead, asking
if we are facing another 25 years of violence.
People are appalled at David Trimble for his selective support of the
Mitchell principles. They are angry about the more than 6,000 plastic bullets
fired last week, only a few hundred were fired at the Orangemen during the
Drumcree standoff.
We run a reconciliation programme for young people. We had one sensible young
Protestant woman on it from an outlying Protestant village Newry is perceived as
a Catholic town. She was in the town when the Drumcree news came through. She
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Page 16
The Irish Times, July 20, 1996
phoned home and was told to come home early.
She was due to come back the following day to finish her team project but was
told by neighbours that if she did so, the house wouldn't be there when she got
back.
After Drumcree there were burnings in Newry every night. One morning I was
returning from a meeting in south Armagh down the Dublin road, through a middle
class area, and there were two burning cars and young people stoned my car and
tried to stop it. Camlough and Armagh were the same.
I was recently in St James's Palace in London for Prince Charles's Prince's
Trust and last week I was at Hillsborough Castle with Lady Mayhew doing my best
to use our situation to bring people together. After last week I started to
think why would anyone bother taking all the flak for going to these places? I
suppose you just have to keep doing it and trying to build it up again for the
sake of peace.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 22, 1996
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Page 17
LEVEL 5 - 6 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Irish Times
The Irish Times
July 20, 1996, CITY EDITION
SECTION: OPINION; POLITICS; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 1707 words
HEADLINE: Drumcree a sign of unionist weakness
BYLINE: By DICK WALSH
BODY:
TO MANY reasserting the primacy of politics threadbare platitude, the kind
of ambition that politicians set for themselves when they have nothing more
precise to say.
It's usually accompanied by the hope that, by the time the promise is due to
be redeemed, the public wills have forgotten about it.
That isn't the case with the promise made by the Irish and British
governments in London this week. Nor is there anything vague and ill defined
about the obligation which their promise imposes on the North's parties and
politicians.
There is a deadline for agreement on the right to march and the way in which
it's to be exercised or limited in the interests of both communities and the
future of Northern Ireland.
The date is August 10th when the Apprentice Boys are due to march in Derry.
But, even before that deadline is reached, as the multi party discussions resume
in Belfast next week, constitutional leaders will have to demonstrate their
determination to make politics work.
And that means leading, not following at the pace of the slowest plainly
acknowledging limitations, not pretending they don't exist selling the message
that the best investment in the future is compromise.
Parties which demand all or nothing, whether their all is a united Ireland or
a return to Stormont, will end up with nothing. Leaders who pretend otherwise
will be swallowed by their supporters.
David Trimble risks this fate. When he returned from Drumcree last week, the
smile was on the face of the Orange tiger he'd attempted to ride. He went there
to repay the Orange investment in his leadership and ended up contributing to
the pretence that a minor victory in a local skirmish amounted to significant
success.
Drumcree was not a success for anyone not for the nationalists who were
batoned off the road, or for the RUC whose batons may have ensured the
alienation of yet another generation of nationalists and certainly not for the
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Page 18
The Irish Times, July 20, 1996
unionist parties and the Orange Order.
If the message that Mr Trimble meant to convey to his supporters was that all
was well with the unionist family, in the sense that none of its old certainties
was about to be disturbed, then he was fooling himself or trying to fool them.
Drumcree is more accurately described as a sign of weakness and lack of
direction than as a confirmation of strength. A community that was sure of
itself would not have needed to put on the display that Ian Paisley, Mr Trimble
and their friends called for.
BUT the most severe criticism of the unionist leaders was not by John Bruton,
who went straight for the British government it came from people who favour the
union but not at any price, John Alderdice on one side and the loyalist
paramilitaries on the other.
Mr Bruton said the British government had been partial and inconsistent. The
paramilitaries, as reported by the Rev Roy Magee on UTV on Thursday night, said
Mr Paisley and Mr Trimble were playing with people's lives.
But when Mr Trimble was found to have met a former UVF prisoner, Billy
Wright, at the height of the trouble in Drumcree, both men insisted that all
they'd talked about was the need to avoid violence.
Those who had criticised Mr Trimble for refusing to meet Portadown and
Belfast delegations because they included former IRA prisoners were sceptical.
They accused him of inconsistency.
Consistency, you've probably spotted, is not a notable feature of politics.
The right to march, now loudly proclaimed by the unionists and resisted by
their opponents, was once among the demands of the civil rights movement. A
right often officially denied by ministers of home affairs and unofficially by
Mr Paisley's friends.
The right, and the political wisdom of insisting on it, was debated at length
in the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association (NICRA) and People's Democracy
(PD) before the PD members set off on the march which came to grief at
Burntollet.
The question was whether it was wise to walk through hostile territory, SO
risking, if not inviting, attack. The arguments of those who marched was that
even if they were attacked, and they were, it would simply show up the nature of
the opposition.
NATIONALISTS of all shades condemned the British government and the RUC Chief
Constable for giving way to the biggest threat at Drumcree, though neither the
politicians nor Cardinal Cahal Daly said what the police should or could have
done.
Have they all forgotten the burning of British embassy offices in Dublin
after Bloody Sunday? As the offices blazed of the cheers of tens of thousands of
protesters, the gardai who were present stood by.
I'm not sure how many gardai were on duty that night certainly not thousands.
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The Irish Times, July 20, 1996
But as Ministers looked across Merrion Square when the fire eventually took
hold, one suggested that maybe it was just as well.
If the embassy offices hadn't gone up, he muttered, as he wandered off
through the corridors of Leinster House to his offices in Merrion Street, the
crowd might have turned on something else.
But the burning of the embassy scarcely rated a mention, though several
reports managed to compare Drumcree and its aftermath with the events of August
1969, when serious street fighting began in Belfast.
The comparison may have been made simply to spice up reports the effect was
to heighten feelings of sectarian hostility by stirring confused memories of
events which happened a generation ago.
There were some similarities between 1969 and 1996, but there were important
differences, too, among them the fact that in 1969 no one imagined what lay
ahead. There would be no excuse for failures of imagination now.
Much damage has already been done. The RUC has been accused, rightly it
seems, of alienating a new generation of young Catholics. Solid members of the
SDLP, Seam us Mallon and Joe Hendron in particular, have complained of great
anger and bitterness among their constituents.
Independent observers report that SDLP supporters are being driven into the
arms of Sinn Fein while republicans arguing for a political approach are
overwhelmed by their militant colleagues.
Mr Bruton's BBC interview last weekend took Mr Major and his advisers by
surprise. Sir Patrick Mayhew felt offended at the Taoiseach's tone of reproof
and disbelief. But Mr Bruton's tone, more indignant than he has sounded for
years, was a model of restraint by comparison with the fury of many political
and journalistic observers in or from the Republic.
On RTE, Charlie Bird went one better than others who had evoked the spirit of
1969 and compared Drumcree with the Battle of the Somme, before becoming all but
speechless with excitement.
As the Republic lurched into the greenery, Brenda reasonably of policemen
hammering unarmed Catholics off the streets.
Then she went on to explain that this was done SO that a gang of bigots with
chamber pots on their heads and curtain pelmets around their necks could parade
past (the Catholics') homes to celebrate another year of seeing the Croppies lie
down".
And as if to confirm how little has changed on this side of the Border, there
was Ulick O'Connor, apoplectic as ever, screeching at fellow guests on the
Sunday Show to shut up, for Christ's sake, because he'd heard enough from them.
The motto proposed by Mitchel McLaughlin later in the week was negotiate,
don't intimidate. It seemed a reasonable request to the organisers of
potentially offensive parades. He'd win plaudits all round if only he could
convince the Provisional IRA to adopt it.
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Page 20
The Irish Times, July 20, 1996
But given the IRA's record, from Canary Wharf to Peckham by way of Adare and
Laois and Osnabrtick, I don't imagine the IRA will.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 22, 1996
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Page 21
LEVEL 5 - 7 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Irish Times
The Irish Times
July 17, 1996, CITY EDITION
SECTION: OPINION; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 1267 words
HEADLINE: Questions on Trimble call for British response
BYLINE: By VINCENT BROWNE
BODY:
OF all the revelations concerning Mr David Trimble's conduct over these last
10 days, the revelation that he met the former UVF prisoner, Mr Billy Wright, at
the height of the Drumcree crisis, is by far the most serious. This is an
illustration of inconsistency in meeting members of one paramilitary
organisation while refusing to meet mere associates (Sinn Fein) of another
paramilitary organisation.
Mr Trimble claims the purpose of the Wright meeting was to urge the
continuance of the loyalist ceasefire and that this was in line with his concern
to ensure calm and restraint through the siege of Drumcree. That claim of
concern for calm and restraint is questionable.
According to himself, David Trimble repeatedly warned Sir Hugh Annesley, the
RUC chief constable, and others, that if the Drumcree Orange march were re
routed to avoid the Garvaghy Road there would be a major confrontation with
members of the Orange Order, leading, perhaps, to wide scale violence. As a
concerned political leader and citizen, Mr Trimble believed it incumbent upon
him to issue such warnings.
The decision having been taken to re-route the march, David Trimble might
have been expected to deplore the decision, perhaps to advise a token protest at
Drumcree and promise that he and his party vigorously would seek to secure
through political means the civil and religious liberties which were stated to
be at issue in Drumcree. He might also have been expected to call for a
dispersal of the Orange marchers at Drumcree, lest any stand off there would
lead to the conflagration that he had fearfully predicted.
WHAT he did was precisely the reverse. Believing that the decision was likely
to cause a major confrontation, far from seeking to avert it he sought to hasten
it by calling on members of the Orange Order throughout Northern Ireland to
muster" at Drumcree. And, in language certain to inflame passions, he said
Dublin are giving the orders" (about the re-routing of the march). In a few
hours time, the rest of the province will show their support."
He then went on to identify himself with statements that could hardly have
been more inflammatory.
Rev Martin Smyth MP, head of the Orange Order and his fellow Unionist MP,
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said it was sometimes necessary to break the law, indicating that it was then
necessary to break the law. He said, "There can be no compromise," echoing what
David Trimble proclaimed after an honourable compromise a year previously. Mr
Harold Gracie, the District Orange Master, with whom David Trimble stood
shoulder to shoulder throughout the siege, said Drumcree was "Ulster's Alamo".
We will not be giving into John Bruton, Gerry Adams, Martin McGuinness or any
other spokesperson for Jesuit priests.
Mr Trimble evinced not a twitch of embarrassment.
Throughout the confrontation, as was the case the previous year, David
Trimble acted in concert with Rev Ian Paisley. Mr Paisley said. "This is not
just the siege of Drumcree, but the siege of the province and of the whole of
the United Kingdom
We're fighting for the promise of the life to come and that's worth fighting
for and 5 worth dying for. "
David Trimble is the MP for the area where this "siege" took place. He was
centrally involved in the confrontation that occurred the previous year. He
therefore had a special responsibility especially as he had become leader of the
main political party in Northern Ireland in the mean time of attempting to
defuse any such conflict this year.
Mr Trimble claims that his self imposed ordinance against trucking with
paramilitaries had to be suspended in the instance of his meeting with members
of the UVF on Wednesday night last because of the "exceptional circumstances"
then obtaining. This would be plausible and perhaps even laudable were it
believable.
If the exceptional circumstances permitted his hour long meeting with Mr
Wright and his cohorts, how is it that the same "exceptional circumstances" did
not permit him to meet with another group (the Garvaghy Road Residents
Association) of which only one member had any paramilitary connections and that
in the past tense? This question is all the more pertinent given David Trimble's
special responsibility in those circumstances.
QUESTIONS concerning David Trimble should now not be directed just at David
Trimble but at John Major and Sir Patrick Mayhew as well. How is it that
throughout the period when David Trimble was seen so brazenly to identify
himself with the threat of the use of force they did not utter a single word of
rebuke?
How is it that now David Trimble can participate in the multi party talks
when participation in such talks is declared to be conditional on acceptance of
the principle that all parties disavow the use of force or the threatened use of
force? How is it that the British government does not even ask him to explain
him sell?
There are two other points now to be made to the British government, quite
aside from the issue of whether the capitulation to the Orange marchers was the
lesser of two evils.
Why did both John Major and Sir Patrick Mayhew cut the ground from under the
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The Irish Times, July 17, 1996
feet of Sir Hugh Annesley by signalling at meetings with David Trimble and
others early last week that the RUC chief constable's re-routing of the Orange
march was negotiable this was the only inference from their calls for
"compromise" and "dialogue"?
And finally, if the removal of the threat or possibility of violence is
essential to equality within the multi party talks (the argument for IRA
decommissioning) how can such talks ever be equal given that they themselves
(Major and Mayhew) have acknowledged that loyalist violence and the threat of
loyalist violence is the ultimate determinant of official policy?
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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LEVEL 5 - 9 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 Newspaper Publishing PLC
The Independent
July 15, 1996, Monday
SECTION: TITLE; Page 1
LENGTH: 849 words
HEADLINE: The dying embers of peace
BYLINE: JOHN RENTOUL MICHAEL STREETER JOJO MOYES and ALAN MURDOCH
BODY:
The Northern Ireland peace process was close to complete disintegration last
night as positions hardened following the bomb explosion at Enniskillen early
yesterday.
With the momentum of events building towards more conflict and bloodshed
since the flashpoint at Drumcree last week, Sir Patrick Mayhew, Secretary of
State for Northern Ireland, is to make a statement in the Commons this
afternoon.
The Irish Government requested an emergency meeting this week between the
British and Irish prime ministers but, with John Major still irritated by John
Bruton's outspoken criticism of the about-turn at Drumcree, the request met with
a cool response in Downing Street.
The Killyhevlin hotel bomb, the first in Northern Ireland since the 1994
ceasefire, was condemned on almost all sides yesterday, amid fears of a violent
backlash by loyalist para-military groups.
But hopes of peace still hung by a slender thread last night as it emerged
that the bomb was probably the work of Republican Sinn Fein, a splinter group,
rather than the IRA itself.
Sinn Fein's president, Gerry Adams, said he was greatly relieved no one had
been seriously hurt in the attack, which injured 17 people, and said he was
"immensely suspicious" as to who carried it out "at a point when the British
Government and Unionist leaders are in the dock".
He said that, for them, "this comes at a very fortuitous time".
Mr Adams said that when the "real authors" of the bombing were identified
"we will see there were dirty tricks involved".
As nationalist feelings ran high, Roman Catholic outrage over Drumcree was
expressed in strong language by Cardinal Cahal Daly, Primate of All Ireland.
"For 25 years I have condemned violence from all quarters, but I now feel
betrayed - betrayed by the British Government," he told GMTV's Sunday programme
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The Independent, July 15, 1996
Asked who was responsible for the breakdown of the peace process, he said:
"Sadly, regrettably, I have to say that I lay the blame fairly and squarely on
the British Government." But he appealed for calm, saying: "We must not allow
this to happen; we must pull back from that awful brink."
Despite condemnations of the bomb, the recriminations over Drumcree also put
severe strain on the all-party consensus at Westminster.
Marjorie Mowlam, Labour's spokeswoman, described the decision of the mainly
Roman Catholic SDLP to pull out of the peace forum as "understandable".
She repeated her demand for an independent commission to look at parades and
marches, and said it was "really serious" that the "rule of law has been brushed
aside" by the decision to let the Orange march at Drumcree to go ahead.
Lord Holme, for the Liberal Democrats, accused British ministers of being
implicated in the "disastrous" reversal of policy at Drumcree. He asked: "How
could they not have planned ahead for the marches after Drumcree last year?"
Relations between London and Dublin have hit a new low, with Mr Major said
to be still "incandescent" at Mr Bruton's criticisms of him over Drumcree and
Irish Foreign Minister Dick Spring admitting that "very wide gaps" had appeared
between the two governments which would be "extremely difficult" to bridge.
A Downing Street spokeswoman had no comment on the Irish request for a
summit, and said talks would be "at the level of Sir Patrick and Mr Spring" in
the course of all-party talks starting tomorrow.
Yesterday Mr Spring maintained the blunt criticism of the about-turn over
Drumcree, saying British decisions regarding one community had signally failed
to judge the effect on the nationalist side, and had simply "revisited mistakes
of the past".
He complained that effective security co-operation and consultation achieved
between the two Governments in recent years had not been forthcoming in the past
week.
This provoked a furious reaction from the arch-Unionist wing of the
Conservative Party. David Wilshire, the Tory MP for Spelthorne, told the
Independent : "The time has come to tear up the Anglo-Irish Agreement. " He said
the Irish Government was not "entitled to be consulted on policing decisions in
a part of the United Kingdom". And he added that the British Government had to
"square up to terrorists rather than appease them".
Meanwhile, Mr Adams, speaking on Irish radio, said the British Government
had to be "straightened out" after Drumcree. "They have to have manners put on
them" to enable meaningful all-party talks to become a possibility, he said.
On the other side of the sectarian trenches, Unionist politicians warned
that the loyalist paramilitary ceasefire was close to breaking. David Ervine of
the Progressive Unionist Party - aligned with the loyalist paramilitary Ulster
Volunteer Force - said the bomb had been the culmination of an absolutely tragic
week.
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The Independent, July 15, 1996
He said he would continue to appeal to the loyalist paramilitary groups not
to react. But he believed the bombing was "likely to get a response", adding:
"Frankly my honeyed words of the benefits and merits of peace are wearing
somewhat thin. "
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 16, 1996
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LEVEL 5 - 10 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Irish Times
The Irish Times
July 15, 1996, CITY EDITION
SECTION: HOME NEWS; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 1267 words
HEADLINE: Drumcree a setback for rule of law in short term, says Annesley
Sir Hugh Annesley has again defended his decision to allow Orangemen down
Garvaghy Road. Gerry Moriarty reports
BYLINE: By GERRY MORIARTY
BODY:
THE rule of law suffered a "set back" at Drumcree, the RUC Chief Constable,
Sir Hugh Annesley, has stated. But he was not prepared to risk one life at
Drumcree and Garvaghy, even if the alternative was the "potential overrun of law
in the short term", he added yesterday in a BBC radio interview.
Sir Hugh again denied that there was any British government pressure on him
to allow the Orange parade through Garvaghy Road on Thursday.
"The allegation that there was political interference is unadulterated
rubbish, II he stated.
He said the RUC was within a "whisker" of an accommodation at Drumcree and
Garvaghy. He did not elaborate on what that accommodation might have been.
A sufficient number of people can overrun the police in the short term, and
this has been evidenced previously in race riots in London, in the burning of
the British embassy in Dublin and in farmer protests in France, he said.
"If there is a rule of law it must be accepted by the Orangemen as well as
everybody else, otherwise there is no long term future for law and order in this
province, " he added.
"In any assessment of what may have been open to the Portadown Orange Lodge
to express their protest about the (Drumcree) decision, nothing but nothing
could justify bringing this province to a standstill, with the burning, the
violence, the attacks on ordinary members of the public," the chief constable
told BBC Radio Ulster.
"And their stance should have been condemned roundly by constitutional
politicians, and the public, they should have obeyed the rule of law. "
The Orange Order should have obeyed the public notice to march back from
Drumcree by a non contentious route. "They talk frequently about being part of
the United Kingdom, of fighting for the United Kingdom. If they want to do that
they will have to take on board the cohesion and the support for law that exists
everywhere else in the United Kingdom."
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The Irish Times, July 15, 1996
Sir Hugh said that there was "significant paramilitary involvement in the
Ormeau Road and Garvaghy Road. The public order situation has been
specifically manipulated by the Provisional IRA/Sinn Fein, and by loyalist
paramilitaries.
"At the same time, I do not and would never suggest that the Garvaghy Road
consists of people who are republicans and who are against the police and law
and order. That is not so. There are very large numbers of decent people there
who object to these marches.
"And I have to remind you of the scenes in the aftermath of an agreed
solution last year. Let me stress again there was an agreed accommodation
between the Orange Lodge and the Garvaghy Road residents. Each side stuck to it
honestly and in accordance with that agreement.
"When that march finally got into Portadown there were scenes of Messrs
Paisley and Trimble in circumstances which the Garvaghy Road and subsequently
the Ormeau Road described as triumphalist.
"And that had a significant and deep bearing on the failure of the Garvaghy
Road residents to move an inch throughout this entire year."
Sir Hugh said that the 3 000 RUC officers and British troops at Drumcree
could not have contained the threat from the Orangemen and their supporters.
"There was no issue of using live rounds. You simply do not contemplate using
live rounds on a public order crowd in the United Kingdom.
"I would not have traded one life at the Garvaghy Road. If the rule of law
had to be turned back in the short term, then so be it. That patch of road is
not worth one human life. "
A mechanism must now be put in place to avoid a Drumcree Mark III, he added.
"I, and my officers, are sick to death of it. We cannot win. We are always
blamed, and many of the people who could and should have done something to
broker an agreement are sitting on the sidelines sniping at me. Well I reject it
(the blame) "
Asked about nationalist perceptions that it was always easier for the police
to confront "the Taigs, rather than the Prods", Sir Hugh said he could
understand that the nationalist people felt unhappy with what had ensued.
"I feel unhappy about it. My force feels unhappy about it. What happened here
was an outrageous attempt by one side to impose their will on the other by the
sheer weight of force. And in the short term, the RUC failed to be able to
deliver the alternative," he admitted.
"In seven years, I have never made a decision that was not based on
impartiality. We have lost ground with the nationalist community. I bitterly
regret that. I hope the people in the nationalist community will realise just
how hard we tried to fairly deliver a situation."
He did not accept that greater police force had been directed against
nationalist protesters than against Orangemen and loyalists. The RUC had
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confronted Orangemen and loyalists "and determinedly and robustly faced them in
accordance with the rule of law".
His officers were directed to ensure the march went down Garvaghy Road as
"effectively and peacefully as possible". People must consider that as the march
began to go down there many petrol bombs were already in place, ready to be
fired at the RUC.
"We do not want confrontation. There are no winners in violence."
He would not consider bringing forward his resignation. "I do not regret the
earlier decision, and I do not regret the second decision which I regard as one
of the most difficult I have made. But I am glad it was made with courage, if I
may say so myself, and with the support of those around me, and with the moral
judgment that Garvaghy Road was not worth a life.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 15, 1996
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LEVEL 5 - 13 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Sunday Telegraph Limited
Sunday Telegraph
July 14, 1996, Sunday
SECTION: Pg. 18
LENGTH: 1298 words
HEADLINE: FOCUS: JUST A 15-MINUTE WALK How did a simple Orange march come to set
Northern Ireland ablaze? Jenny McCartney explains
BYLINE: BY JENNY MCCARTNEY
BODY:
BURNED out cars lie at the side of pavements. The facades of torched shops
are boarded up. Police and army vehicles circle the empty streets. "All this -
because of a 15-minute walk" reads the graffito in Loyalist Belfast. It is a
strange slogan, half-threat and half-regret. Yet it hints at what many people
are wondering: how could a dispute over an Orange parade down a road in
Portadown set Northern Ireland ablaze? Like the huge, teetering bonfires erected
by Loyalists for the Twelfth of July, the confrontation had been building for a
long time. Its foundations are in the centuries-old antagonisms of Irish
history. But the spark was lit last year at Drumcree in Portadown - and last
week, that spark became a conflagration. The Protestant Orangemen of the area
have been marching for the past 189 years to a church service at Drumcree, and
returning via the Garvaghy Road, one of the main thoroughfares into Portadown.
In the Sixties, a number of housing estates were built along the Garvaghy Road,
and Catholic families moved in. Now, Catholics are by far in the majority on the
Garvaghy Road, although Portadown remains a predominantly Protestant town. In
recent years, the Garvaghy Residents Coalition has become increasingly vocal,
demanding that the Orange parade be routed away from Garvaghy Road. The
Orangemen retorted that the right to march along their traditional route was
vital to the expression of their civil and religious liberty. Furthermore, the
Orangemen said that it was not ordinary Catholics but Republican activists who
were seeking to restrict their march for political reasons. They pointed to
the leader of the Garvaghy Residents, Brendan McKenna, a former IRA activist who
was sentenced to 14 years' imprisonment for helping to blow up a hall in
Portadown belonging to the Royal British Legion. The Garvaghy Residents
Coalition said that the Orangemen's march past a Nationalist area was
triumphalist and offensive. If the Orangemen wouldn't stop it, then the British
Government and the RUC should. And they themselves would come out to stage a
protest against the march. Last year, fearing a violent confrontation between
Orangemen and Garvaghy Road residents, the RUC tried to re-route the Orange
march at the last minute. The result was a three-day stand-off between Orangemen
and police. Finally a compromise was reached, and 800 Orangemen were allowed to
march down the road in silence, without their bands. The march was silent, the
aftermath was not. It was noisily hailed as a victory for the Orange Order by
David Trimble, now leader of the Ulster Unionist Party, and Ian Paisley, leader
of the Democratic Unionist Party. But the louder the Orange victory cries last
year, the surer the confrontation this year. And so it came. Exactly the same
argument, this time set against a background of growing tension - a peace
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process that lay in the rubble of the IRA bombs in Docklands and Manchester;
resentful, alienated Unionists; frustrated Nationalists. All this and more
converged upon Drumcree. The RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, announced
on the Saturday before the Orange parade that the Orangemen would be banned from
marching down Garvaghy Road on public-order grounds. He said that the decision
was purely operational. The Orangemen, and Unionist leaders, said it was
political, enacted at the behest of the Irish government. London and Dublin
routinely confer on the routing of marches. The "15-minute walk" had become
heavy with symbolism. Orangemen massed again at Drumcree. Loyalist fury, which
had lain uneasily dormant, erupted across Northern Ireland. Youths rioted in
Protestant areas with petrol bombs, cars were hijacked and burned, shops looted
or burned down. Protests blocked roads and sealed off towns. For others there
were memories of the Ulster Workers Strike in 1974, when Loyalists brought
Northern Ireland to a standstill, and the power-sharing executive down, in
protest at plans to create an all-Ireland Council of Ireland. By last Thursday
more than 10,000 Orangemen assembled at Drumcree, determined to march. They were
poised to swell to more than 50,000 by the following day - the Twelfth of July,
when Orangemen commemorate the victory of King William at the Boyne in 1690.
Opposite them were thousands of RUC men, backed by soldiers. Finally, the Chief
Constable changed his decision, and allowed a procession of Orangemen to march
silently down the Garvaghy Road. With the clatter of Army helicopters overhead,
they walked down in their sashes, staring straight ahead, to the sound of one
drum beating. RUC vehicles followed behind. On the embankment, Nationalist
residents stood, protesting. One woman yelled "Up the IRA!" to cheers. "That's
an awful long road boys - five days it took you to walk it," shouted a man. As
the Orangemen passed down the road, residents vented their rage with the RUC.
"The Chief Constable told us they weren't coming, and now he backtracks. The
police sold us out," said one woman. Another asked angrily: "Where are Sinn
Fein? Where are the IRA?" In private, some residents of Garvaghy Road said: "If
they were going to let us down, they should have just let us down at the
beginning, and not waited five days." Outside the harsher politics of the street
had taken hold. With a slow inevitability, the rioting began. A van was
overturned and set on fire in the middle of the road. Nationalist youths came
out to throw petrol bombs and stones at RUC vehicles. RUC men fired back plastic
bullets. One spectator said: "Forget about a few stones and petrol bombs. It's
been levelled before, and it'll be levelled again." He was speaking about the
town of Portadown, the centre of which was destroyed some years ago by a massive
IRA bomb. The contagion of rage which had spread through Loyalist areas earlier
in the week, when the Orange march was banned, had passed to Nationalist areas
as soon as the march was permitted. Nationalist hopes that the RUC was going to
face down the Orangemen had been allowed to build for five days. The dashing of
those hopes was the worst of all scenarios. After the parade, the Orangemen
quietly dispersed. There was none of the swagger which had characterised
Drumcree last year. Around the bonfires in Belfast's Shankill Road that night,
Protestant youths were also curiously subdued. What did they think of what had
happened at Drumcree? One said wearily: "I'm glad the Orangemen got to walk
through. They had to do it, it's in their hearts. But we have had our turn and
now the Catholics are going to have theirs.' With a sweep of his hand, he
gestured towards the Falls Road. "We're so close to each other. And once they
start, we'll have to do something back." " He shook his head. "This country is a
mess." Since then, night after night, in town after town, the street violence
has escalated. On Friday night, in Londonderry alone, 1,000 petrol bombs were
thrown. Elsewhere, RUC stations have come under gunfire attack, and police have
returned fire. It seems likely that the IRA is planning a return to full-scale
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violence in Northern Ireland and if that happens it will be almost impossible
for the Loyalist paramilitaries' ceasefire to continue. "Things fall apart, the
centre cannot hold, " wrote Yeats. His line describes Northern Ireland, as the
violence escalates. Gerry Adams, the Sinn Fein leader, has said that "the
peace process lies in absolute ruins". Unionist and Nationalist leaders are
pitted against one another, and there is acrimony between London and Dublin over
the handling of Drumcree. All this - because of a 15-minute walk? No. These are
the old divisions, cracks which were papered over by the disintegrating
paramilitary ceasefires. Sadly for Northern Ireland, it was a walk just waiting
to happen.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 14, 1996
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LEVEL 5 - 18 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 Caledonian Newspapers Ltd.
The Herald (Glasgow)
July 11, 1996
SECTION: Pg. 10
LENGTH: 1467 words
HEADLINE: As the Drumcree stand-off continues, Herald writers analyse its
implications for Ulster's future; Pouring fuel on the fire
BYLINE: From Russell Edmunds In Belfast;;
BODY:
ON the face of it, the Orangemen's protest at Drumcree is about the right to
march down a mile-long stretch of road in County Armagh. Behind the new
headlines from Ulster lie more far-reaching reasons for the violence.
It is now about two years since the IRA declared a ceasefire, followed six
weeks later by a similar announcement from loyalist terror groups. The late
summer and autumn of 1994 heralded a new era for Northern Ireland after 25 years
of conflict but, from the outset, the Unionist majority in Ulster were far from
convinced.
Why, they asked, had the IRA stopped? Was there a hidden agenda - a deal
which might weaken the link with Britain and give Dublin or Nationalists in
Ulster a greater say in the future of the province.
Despite assurances from London, the Unionist suspicions were fuelled by
revelations that secret contacts had been established between British Government
officials and the IRA as early as 1990.
No sooner was the IRA ceasefire in place than a new row developed over
whether it was "permanent" or not. Unionists demanded that unless the peace was
confirmed as permanent, the Government should not enter into talks with the
IRA's political wing, Sinn Fein.
Within months and without any such assurance, the Government accepted as "a
working assumption" that the IRA ceasefire would not be reversed, which, of
course, it was.
However, the issue which angered the Unionists even more was that of
decommissioning of terrorist weapons.
Once again, the Unionists felt the Government was adopting an unduly soft
approach to the IRA and Sinn Fein, whose leader Gerry Adams was welcomed in
Dublin and Washington, while his political side-kicks engaged in ground
-breaking talks with Government officials and Ministers at Stormont.
As the ceasefire held, the Government lifted closure orders on cross-border
roads between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic. Troops were withdrawn to
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barracks and their numbers substantially reduced. Remission rates for prisoners
were increased to 50% of sentences enabling more terrorist convicts to be
released early.
Perhaps the most annoying aspect of all for Unionists is the high-profile
role played by the Irish Government and the perception, if not reality, that its
Ministers and officials are in frequent and friendly contact with their British
counterparts in London and Belfast on matters relating to Northern Ireland.
One of those matters has certainly been Orange parades. In the
post-ceasefire era, a new phrase grew in Ulster's political vocabulary - "parity
of esteem".
Nationalists argued that if the peace was to be preserved and built on, the
old dominance of the Unionist majority could not revisit Ulster. In future, the
British Unionist and Irish Nationalist traditions, the Orange and the Green
could only exist side by side in harmony if both were given equal respect.
Against this background, Nationalists in Ulster have been demanding that
their Irish Gaelic culture is just as deserving of a place in the sun as the
Orange tradition and they have begun to challenge with a new confidence and
strong support from the Irish Government, the manner in which Protestants
organise around 3000 annual parades.
The origins of that challenge can be traced back to 1985 when a historic
agreement was signed between the British and Irish Governments to give Dublin a
limited say in Ulster's affairs.
A consequence of that pact was that Irish Ministers demanded a more even
-handed approach to the control and policing of Protestant marches. Several
Orange parades which passed near or through flashpoint Catholic neighbourhoods
were reviewed and, mostly with the reluctant agreement of the Orange Order, have
been re-routed in other directions in recent years.
"Enough is enough." These words have been heard time and again this week
from protesters at Drumcree church confronting the police lines. To the
Orangemen and to the Unionist majority, too many concessions are being made by
London to appease nationalist feelings in Ulster and the demands of the Irish
Government.
Although Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew insists the RUC decision to
re -route the Drumcree parade last Sunday was taken on purely "operational"
grounds, few in the Unionist community believe him.
Instead they suspect the hand of Dublin and charge that the RUC chief
constable is no longer his own man. In short, the re-routing is seen as a
political decision and that serves to fuel the fires that are now burning SO
dangerously in Ulster this week.
To the Orangemen of Drumcree, the re-routing is only the latest in a long
line of concessions at the behest of Dublin to appease the IRA and Sinn Fein.
Shameful though this week's violence has been, it represents the lancing of a
Unionist boil that has been festering for months if not years.
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After watching the Sinn Fein leadership being heralded during the ceasefire
period, the Unionists have put down a marker at Drumcree. Enough is enough, or
as the old Orange slogan goes, "Not an inch and no surrender. " The message
coming out of the flames of Ulster this week is that the Unionists are in no
mood to make further concessions.
For the so-called peace process, the omens are not good. Nationalists are
demanding equality or parity of esteem. Unionists and Orangemen are saying they,
too, have rights which must be recognised and, like their parade route from
Drumcree church in County Armagh, preserved for another day, another July.
No-one wants to give way. As the Irish nationalist tradition asserts itself
and demands parity of esteem, the British Unionists are saying: 'What we have
we hold. " Drumcree means not an inch more.
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LEVEL 5 - 19 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Daily Telegraph plc
The Daily Telegraph
July 10, 1996, Wednesday
SECTION: Pg. 04
LENGTH: 647 words
HEADLINE: THE SIEGE OF DRUMCREE The Orangemen stand defiant on a diet of tea,
soup and pop music
BYLINE: By Colin Randall in Drumcree
BODY:
FROM his makeshift studio in the parish hall at Drumcree, Co Armagh, Nigel
Dawson's voice drifted over the heads of 1,000 loyalists assembled behind barbed
wire separating them from a line of police Land Rovers. "You are listening to
the Drumcree Roadshow and the wavelength is 1690, he said, keen not to miss a
chance to refer to the year of King William of Orange's victory at the Battle of
the Boyne. At the front-line barricade, competing with the disc jockey's diet of
news, messages of encouragement and bursts of Eric Clapton, Tina Turner and the
Four Seasons, the girls of the Portadown Star of David Accordion Band dipped
into their repertoire. With the RUC ranks lined up ahead, their role was as much
to signal the Orangemen's defiance as to entertain. It was day three of the
Siege of Drumcree, or Seige according to the erratic spelling of badges designed
to mark a similar stand-off last year which lasted until Orangemen were allowed
to march their traditional pre-July 12th route through the nationalist Garvaghy
Road. After earlier clashes with the police at Drumcree, and two nights of
lawlessness by loyalist mobs throughout the province, the mood seemed friendlier
yesterday. On the mainly Roman Catholic Ballyoran estate, children played
noisily on the Saracen armoured cars of British soldiers as older residents
rejected claims that their opposition to the march was Sinn Fein/IRA-inspired.
Meanwhile, cardboard boxes packed with airline-style snacks were handed out to
policemen and women. Beyond the barbed wire and up the hill, Protestant wives
worked at the church hall, making piles of sandwiches and gallons of tea. Bowls
of stew went for 50p each, rounds of sandwiches for pounds 1. Among the Ulster
accents from the sash-wearing demonstrators, a few English voices could be
detected. Mike Barrett, 30, a civil servant of Harlow, Essex, believed that up
to 40 Orangemen from North Essex and London lodges would be in Drumcree by
Friday, the all-important July 12th of Protestant Ulster's calendar. "Part of it
is patriotism, a belief in the United Kingdom," " said Mr Barrett, who has no
family links with the province. "But there is also a wish to see people able to
live as they wish, as opposed to being forced to live in a different way. "This
is a dignified protest. The violence elsewhere has nothing to do with it." David
Packer, 26, a printer, of Hounslow, west London, belongs to the 1689 Westminster
lodge. He realises that many people in mainland Britain would regard the
activities of Orangemen as absurd, but blames the media. "I joined 70,000 in
Loughgall, the birthplace of the Orange Order, for a perfectly peaceful parade
two years ago," he said. "When I got home, I asked my family 'did you see me on
the telly?' and of course, because there had been no trouble, it hadn't even
been mentioned. " Both Mr Barrett and Mr Packer said they were prepared to remain
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1996 The Daily Telegraph plc, July 10, 1996
as long as necessary at Drumcree as a gesture of solidarity with their
"brethren" opposed to the RUC decision to ban them from marching from a church
service along the route they have followed for 189 years. No one doubts that
the impasse has the potential to end nastily. Many thousands more Orangemen and
loyalists are likely to gather at Drumcree on Friday, and all sides fear there
could be serious trouble if no compromise has been struck beforehand. A
statement by the Portadown District Loyal Orange Lodge No 1 condemned "without
equivocation" the violence that has gripped the province this week. But far from
criticising the civil disobedience that has accompanied the trouble, Orangemen
are co-ordinating the action. "People have been inconvenienced, " said Jeffrey
Donaldson, assistant Grand Master of the Orange Order. "That is unfortunate. But
it is not the fault of the Orange Order. It is a result of the denial of civil
rights of Orangemen at Drumcree."
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LEVEL 5 - 20 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Irish Times
The Irish Times
July 10, 1996, CITY EDITION
SECTION: HOME MEWS; Pg. 7
LENGTH: 1080 words
HEADLINE: Dr Eames appeals to both sides to resist return to the past
BYLINE: By MARIE O'HALLORAN
DATELINE: PORTADOWN
BODY:
ARCHBISHOP ROBIN Eames appealed for no words, actions or plan which would
bring the North back " to the nightmare which we suffered for 25 years" when he
visited Drumcree yesterday.
The Presbyterian Moderator Dr Harry Allen, who also visited Drumeree
yesterday, said that regardless of the decision taken by the RUC Chief
Constable, it was inevitable that one section of the community would feel
strongly aggrieved. He urged both sides to talk, "as there is no possibility of
peace in confrontation".
The Church of Ireland primate said: "Above all we have got to resist anything
that would bring this province to its knees in terms of its economic progress,
its tourism, its business life and anything which would make it worse".
Dr Eames said there was no doubt the Orange Order "feels very much that they
want to see this scene, this whole situation out. On the other hand there are
feelings being expressed in Garvaghy Road, and that scene has to be taken on
board also.
"What we have to see is the Drumcree incident, if we could call it that, not
only as a part of a parade issue and a piece of road, but as something to do
with the whole situation which people find themselves in".
The Orangemen in the Drumcree area were trying to express their feelings not
just in relation to the march in Drumcree, but as part of a wider picture in
which "they perceive that their rights and their ethos are being eroded".
They were dealing with human nature and "people who feel they are caught up
in something which quite frankly they don't understand. They find it impossible
to come to terms with. This march to Drumcree church has been part of their
tradition".
The whole situation in that area had been altered, he said, and he could
understand the fears expressed on both sides.
Dr Eames said they had got to come to some reasonable solution. "What I am
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The Irish Times, July 10, 1996
appealing for at the moment is reasonableness, and not just building a situation
in which, year in and year out, we're going to face this sort of a crisis. We've
got to try and reach some sort of agreement whereby the rights and privileges
of two communities much wider than Drumcree are recognised and are seen to be
treated fairly."
Dr Eames, speaking to reporters on his second visit in two days, said:
"Protest on either side will be utterly diluted by the sort of behaviour we've
seen trying to bring this province to its knees again by violence and by
burnings and by evictions.
"We have got to find a way out of this impasse,' he said. "There is no excuse
and no provision whatsoever for the sort of nightmare that we have experienced
in this province during the past night. And I simply have to say to you, this is
a human problem as much as a political one and we have got to seek reassurance
and confidence, calmness and reasonableness.
Dr Allen said that people had a right to protest but it must always be
restrained and dignified. "Threats should never be the grounds on which serious
decisions are reached. Acceptable agreements must be found so that those who
wish to parade may do so in a manner and frequency that residents can
accommodate.
"
Following his visit to Drumcree on Monday, Dr Eames said in a statement it
was a time to measure every word and action carefully and seize every
opportunity to reach agreement.
"Having talked and listened at great length to those involved in the current
impasse at Drumcree I am fully aware of the depth of their feeling at this
time, " he said.
Expressing appreciation for efforts made to observe the sanctity of church
property, Dr Eames said the protesters viewed their action "as part of a wider
picture in which the perception is that their rights and their ethos have been
eroded by events far removed from Drumcree."
He was also aware of the feelings currently being expressed by the Garvaghy
Road Residents Association, he said. "I regret that so far no accommodation of
these conflicting views has been possible, for I believe some way must be found
in which the rights, ethos and privileges of both communities are treated
equally and fairly if this province is to look forward to any degree of
stability in the future.
Drumcree is part of a wider problem and it cannot be separated from it. The
real question is how do we, as a community, reach a point in which there is a
realistic recognition of the just rights to celebrate and observe religious and
civic freedom on the part of both traditions."
At this time, Dr Eames said, "every word and action must be measured
carefully and every opportunity seized to reach agreement which will allow the
freedom of expression and parity of esteem we all seek to become a reality. I
appeal to everyone to resist the temptation to fall into the trap of violent
words or actions which will delete the legitimacy of protest on either side. "
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LEVEL 5 - 21 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Irish Times
The Irish Times
July 10, 1996, CITY EDITION
SECTION: OPINION; Pg. 12
LENGTH: 1480 words
HEADLINE: Drumcree explodes myth that NI peace is at hand
BYLINE: By VINCENT BROWNE
BODY:
What is most depressing about the Drumcree stand-off is how a penny candle
issue has been blown into an inferno.
Whichever perspective this issue is viewed from there is nothing fundamental
at stake and yet the future of what is known as the peace process has been put
at risk.
The 15-minute passage of the Orange parade through Garvaghy Road would not
have inflicted any grave injustice or disrespect on the Catholic residents of
that area - and it would have been just 15 minutes had the Garvaghy Road
residents not made an issue of it.
Equally, no grave compromise of liberty is involved by the requirement of the
Orange marchers to return from Drumcree church the way they came.
If compromise over such trivialities is elusive, how then will it be possible
to reach compromise over the nature of the Northern Ireland state?
Indeed, it has been the scorn that the unionist leader, David Trimble, has
shown for compromise that is at the heart of the impasse.
Last year, a compromise had been reached between the Garvaghy Road residents
and the Orange marchers, which involved the marchers passing silently through
silent lines of nationalist protesters. But in the immediate aftermath of that
compromise, David Trimble danced down the centre of Portadown hand in hand with
Ian Paisley and exulted: "There was no compromise. We have come down the
traditional route in normal fashion with our flags flying
We were glad to be
down the traditional route and we expect to be again."
That spectacle and reaction has made compromise this time around far more
difficult.
Any expectation that the responsibility of leadership of the Unionist Party
would evoke a less reckless response from David Trimble has been disappointed.
It was he who called on Sunday for members of the Orange Order to "muster" in
Portadown in solidarity with their Drumcree brethren and it has been this
"mustering" that has led to the confrontation and the escalation of the conflict
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The Irish Times, July 10, 1996
in several other parts of Northern Ireland.
Far from seeking de-escalation and compromise, the other unionist leader, Ian
Paisley, has hyped the issue into apocryphal dimensions. On Sunday night, he
said: "This is not just the siege of Drumcree, it is the siege of the whole
province and the siege of the United Kingdom.
He said they should be prepared to "fight" for their religious faith which
was "worth dying for". The implication was that the Protestant faith was at
stake at Drumcree.
AT the time of writing (Tuesday afternoon), it is difficult to see how this
impasse can end without grave escalation, but whatever the outcome, it
highlights the extent to which conflict resolution has not even begun in
Northern Ireland.
It is astonishing that over the last year, responsible citizens in Portadown
did not try to resolve the conflict over this annual Orange march. It seems some
efforts were made by Garvaghy Road residents but the local Orange lodge did not
respond to letters, partly on the grounds that they did not wish to deal with
the spokesperson for the residents who has a conviction for a terrorist offence.
But was it sensible for either side to leave it at that?
Would it not have been possible for a public meeting to have been arranged in
Portadown involving the residents of Garvaghy Road and members of the Drumcree
Orange lodge at which the Orange lodge members would have explained why marching
down this road was important to them and the residents would have explained why
it was objectionable to them?
Would it not have been possible in the last year to have removed some of the
nationalist incomprehension of the Orange Order's identification of a right to
march with civil and religious liberties?
Would it not have been possible also to have removed some of the unionist
incomprehension of nationalist objections to Orange marches?
Is it inconceivable that a compromise along the lines of last year's could
have been arranged, perhaps on this occasion with the marchers walking silently
through Garvaghy Road in the absence of any nationalist protest?
Had John Hume been the local MP, it is certain he would have attempted to
resolve that impasse over the past year. Regrettably, the local MP is David
Trimble who, as he proclaimed triumphally a year ago, is not interested in
compromise.
But are there not others in Portadown who could have taken the initiative.
What were the local clergy doing over the last year, what were the business
associations and trade unions doing?
What was the local media doing to explain one side to the other?
WHETHER there are to be all-party talks or not, there is not now the basis
for a settlement to the Northern Ireland problem and the stand-off at Drumcree
illustrates that. Even if the politicians were themselves committed to the
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The Irish Times, July 10, 1996
search for a settlement and Messrs Trimble, Paisley and McCartney are not - they
would be unlikely to carry their parties with them in the absence of a culture
of reconciliation and compromise generally.
It is almost a cliche to observe that a fundamental part of the Northern
Ireland problem is the incomprehension by each of the communities of the other.
Unionists do not begin to understand the genuine reasons for nationalist
alienation from the Northern state. Nationalists do not begin to understand the
genuine apprehensions that unionists have at the prospect of any drift towards a
united Ireland.
One might have expected, for instance, one or both of the "public service"
broadcasting stations on the island to have provided a means of bridging this
mutual incomprehension. But in the absence of that, could not some other
mechanism have been created that would have permitted the communities to talk to
one another about their fears, grief, anger and aspirations?
In the absence of such, relatively minor issues such as Drumcree will
continue to envelop Northern Ireland in widespread conflict.
Postscript.
I want to apologise for misunderstandings that have arisen from a comment I
made in an article on June 28th about Veronica Guerin's murder. I wrote that it
was probable her murder was unrelated to anything she had written or was about
to write. I should have added that almost certainly her death was directly
related to her work as a journalist.
I very much regret any ambiguity that may have arisen from what I wrote.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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LEVEL 5 - 22 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Scotsman Publications Ltd.
The Scotsman
July 10, 1996, Wednesday
SECTION: Pg. 1
LENGTH: 2294 words
HEADLINE: Unionists plan show of strength
BYLINE: Robert Wright And Ewen Macaskill
BODY:
BETWEEN 50,000 and 80,000 Loyalists will descend on Drumcree on Friday, the
12th of July, for potentially one of the most explosive confrontations in
Northern Ireland's recent history, Ulster Unionists' leaders predicted
yesterday.
The prediction came before the army announced that it is to send two extra
battalions, about 1,000 men, into Northern Ireland.
Violence flared last night at the end of another day's stand-off at the
church in Drumcree, near Portadown, where Orangemen are camped in protest at the
ban on marching through a predominantly Roman Catholic area.
A huge march in support of the Portadown Lodge's right to march down
Garghavy Road fanned out along barbed wire lines erected by police, who opened
fire with rubber bullets.
Ambulances could be seen leaving with the injured.
The arrival of the extra soldiers means that, by Friday, in the province
there will be 13 battalions, about 18,500 soldiers, the highest number since
1982.
Before the army's announcement, the three Unionist leaders - David Trimble,
Ian Paisley and Robert McCartney - emerged from a meeting with John Major in the
Commons having failed to win a compromise. The three wanted the Prime Minister
to put pressure on the Royal Ulster Constabulary chief constable, Sir Hugh
Annesley, to make the same compromise as last year, allowing a token group from
the local Orange lodge to make the 15-20 minute march past nationalist areas.
But Mr Major, after going eyeball to eyeball with the Unionist leaders for
more than an hour, refused to back down, saying it was an operational matter for
the RUC and he could not intervene.
He appealed to the Unionists for "maximum restraint" and said there was no
justification for the Loyalist violence and disorder.
The political stalemate came as trouble mounted throughout Northern Ireland,
with some of the worst rioting for a decade.
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The Scotsman, July 10, 1996
In Belfast there was an air of menace. Loyalist barricades were set up,
bonfires were lit and young men were out on the streets.
But, at the focus of the confrontation, Drumcree, the atmosphere at first
was deceptively calm with men, women and children wandering around, resting on
gravestones in the churchyard and chatting idly. Until the mood changed, it had
felt more like a country fair.
In London, Mr Paisley, who has been involved in similar confrontations for
more than 40 years, agreed with a journalist who described the Drumcree
stand-off as a powder keg.
"Drumcree will be a focus on July 12 - when people finish their
demonstrations elsewhere, whether they are invited or not, they will go fleet of
foot to Drumcree. That is an undeniable fact,' " he said.
Mr McCartney said of what the Prime Minister had been told: "It was
indicated there might be between 50,000-80,000 people there by the 11th and 12th
and this problem will grow and grow." The Unionist leaders said that Mr Major
could no longer count on their support in the Commons, making him vulnerable to
a Labour ambush.
The Unionist leaders boycotted the multi-party talks in Belfast yesterday
and said they would not return as long as the RUC block the Orangemen.
They ignored an appeal from Mr Major at Prime Minister's question time in
the Commons that it was vital to maintain dialogue at this time.
Mr Paisley said: "The Prime Minister unfortunately believes that the chief
constable did right and, until the Prime Minister changes that, I cannot see any
resolution to what is going on. I am afraid to say that that is my view.
"The chief constable looked at it and said that if they go down the road
there is going to be civil commotion. But he didn't look at the other side. He
didn't look at the civil commotion that was going to take place if he did not
allow them down the road. "
Pearl Armstrong, one of the women helping to feed the thousands of Orangemen
camped in Drumcree, explained her feelings about the stalemate. "The police are
holding British people to ransom, " she said. "These are people that went to a
morning church service. All they wanted to do was walk to church. "
Barbed wire and concrete blocks have been placed at the stream that marked
the start of the area forbidden to the marchers.
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LEVEL 5 - 23 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 Caledonian Newspapers Ltd.
The Herald (Glasgow)
July 9, 1996
SECTION: Pg. 15
LENGTH: 1680 words
HEADLINE: Headingtowards disaster
BYLINE: Russell Edmunds
BODY:
As Ulster once more marches to the tune of confrontation and violence,
Russell Edmunds explains why the province is being taken to the brink.
"It is the Siege of Ulster because if we fail in this you can rest assured
we are finished. 11
WITH these words, County Armagh's Orange leader, Harold Gracey has set the
scene for arguably the worst crisis between Ulster Protestants and the security
forces since 1974. The re-routing of a small rural parade of Orangemen from
Drumcree Parish Church away from a mainly Catholic neighbourhood has become an
issue which threatens to embroil the whole province in new conflict and
violence.
Drumcree church stands amid the fields and country lanes just outside
Portadown. Tradition has it that on the first Sunday in July the local Orange
lodges accompanied by their bands attend the church to remember and give thanks
for the "glorious, pious, and immortal memory" of the Dutch King William, who
defeated the Catholic King James at the Battle of the River Boyne in the same
month, 306 years ago.
The Orangemen march from Portadown along an undisputed route to the church
and then return to the mainly Protestant town, via Garvaghy Road, a broad
arterial road, flanked by Catholic housing estates. Until the mid-1980s the
Orangemen marched along another road which took them through a tough Catholic
district of Portadown known as The Tunnel. When that became too hot for the
security forces to handle, the new route along Garvaghy Road was an accepted
compromise. Now, it, too, has become SO Catholic that for the past two years,
the Royal Ulster Constabulary have ordered a last-minute re-routing to avoid the
risk of serious street disorder.
Last year, the police decision met with three days and nights of a stand-off
confrontation in what became known as the Siege of Drumcree and eventually, in
the face of thousands of Orange protesters, the police relented and allowed a
small parade to pass along Garvaghy Road.
This year, the Siege of Drumcree has become, in Harold Gracey's words, the
Siege of Ulster and events yesterday and last night suggested that might not be
an overstatement. In Ballymena, a car showroom was counting the cost of a night
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of mayhem during which a mob burned out almost 50 vehicles and damaged as many
more. In Portadown, troops were mobilised to help the police restore a semblance
of order as Protestant mobs roamed the town centre, occasionally hijacking and
using vehicles as burning barricades. The normally quiet district of Drumcree
resounded to the harsh thud of police plastic bullets and the taunts of
protesters encamped in the church grounds and its adjoining cemetery.
The family of 31-year-old Michael McGoldrick, a Catholic who graduated only
last week from Queen's University, were mourning his murder in the County Armagh
village of Aghalee. "Fire and brimstone speeches have featured too much in this
situation,' said a family statement, as speculation rose that the murder might
spell the end of the loyalist's 22-month ceasefire. "Loose talk has cost this
innocent young fellow his life, said Mr McGoldrick's family.
The murder, possibly at the hands of a renegade group of loyalist
extremists, heightened tensions further across Ulster. With no resolution of the
Drumcree stand-off in sight, and Orangemen threatening to intensify their
protest, many people left central Belfast in a particular hurry last night, but
some were still caught in road-blocks set up by Protestants on main routes out
of the city. Throughout the day, the pattern of disruption had been building and
experienced observers of Northern Ireland knew the situation was spiralling
rapidly towards more disorder.
This is Northern Ireland's traditional Twelfth fortnight holiday period.
With the schools closed for the summer and many major businesses and offices
shut down for the fortnight, the potential for street protests and violence is
increased. There have been problems before with Orange parades, but nothing to
match the dangerous developments at Drumcree, where at least 1000 police
supported by more troops on stand-by, appear determined to hold the line against
any attempt by the Orangemen to march along Garvaghy Road. All day yesterday and
into the night, the battle of wills between the two sides was played out, while
elsewhere in Ulster the Orange Order called on its members to stage more
marches.
The rumour machine was rife. People going on holiday worried that the ferry
crossings to Scotland, such as that at Larne in County Antrim, which was sealed
last July, would be blockaded again. There was concern, too, for the airports at
Aldergrove and in east Belfast. In all, the mood of apprehension brought back
memories for many of 1974 when Protestants staged a general strike across
Northern Ireland and brought the province to a standstill.
The trouble at Drumcree has been brewing since last July. All police
attempts to persuade either the Orange Order to re-route its parade voluntarily
or the Catholic residents of Garvaghy Road to relent in their opposition have
failed.
By last weekend the RUC knew it had only two options - to either re-route
the parade on Sunday or to allow it to pass along Garvaghy Road in the certainty
that Catholic residents would stage a sit-down protest. If the latter occurred
it would send an unpalatable image to the rest of Ireland and abroad of the RUC,
forcing an unwanted Protestant parade on a Catholic neighbourhood.
When RUC Chief Constable Sir Hugh Annesley announced the re-routing decision
24 hours before Sunday's gathering at Drumcree, he ordered a massive presence of
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The Herald (Glasgow), July 9, 1996
his men in the area overnight and called for the back-up support of Army
battalions.
So the battle lines were drawn on a dispute that has long been festering
between the Orange Order and the authorities. To the Orangemen, it was time to
draw a line in the sand and to call upon the old Protestant slogan: "Not an
inch. " Their leaders argued that police were bending to pressure from
nationalists and from the British and Irish governments to deny them their
"God-given rights" to march as they had always done on the highways and by -ways
of Ulster.
Many Catholics, however, take a different view. They see the Orange marches
as offensive, insensitive, and unwelcome in their areas and the struggle over
access to Garvaghy Road in Portadown and another route in Belfast at Ormeau Road
are the test cases.
By the extent of their presence in Portadown, the security forces, too, have
drawn their line in the sand, but as the protests grew last night the question
was whether it could be held and at what price. Already Northern Ireland has
paid a high cost and looks set to pay an even higher one with the Orange Order
determined to make a stand and calling more of its members on to the streets in
protest.
Friday sees the Twelfth parades at 20 venues across Ulster, the biggest
attracting more than 100,000 people in Belfast. Last year the Siege of
Drumcree was resolved in time for this province-wide Protestant celebration to
take place peacefully. Last night there was no such certainty. With more marches
planned in support of Drumcree, the security forces were facing a challenge to
their authority which looked like stretching them to the limit. After almost
two years of peace, Northern Ireland stood again on a most dangerous precipice
of fear and potential violence.
GRAPHIC: Fuelling the flames: the traditional marching season has seen
determined stand-offs and violence across Northern Ireland.
LOAD-DATE: July 10, 1996
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LEVEL 5 - 24 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 Newspaper Publishing PLC
The Independent
July 9, 1996, Tuesday
SECTION: TITLE; Page 1
LENGTH: 626 words
HEADLINE: Unionists threaten 'siege of Ulster'
BODY:
The multi-party talks on the future of Northern Ireland will resume today
without the main Unionist parties.
The Ulster Unionists said last night that because of the stand-off between
Orange Order supporters and the Royal Ulster Constabulary at Drumcree, near
Portadown, Co Armagh, they would not be fielding a team at the Stormont talks.
The Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, pledged: "We are not closing the
doors by any means." His party colleague, the Rev Martin Smyth, a Grand Master
of the Orange Order, added: "I don't believe we should be having the requiem
mass for them the peace talks at this stage."
Democratic Unionist Party leader, Rev Ian Paisley, told crowds of protesters
at Drumcree that he and Mr Trimble would meet the Prime Minister, John Major,
tomorrow. A Downing Street spokesman said: "A request has been made to see the
Prime Minister, which is under consideration."
The boycott of today's talks was announced after a day of ugly scenes as
Orangemen stepped up their protest at not being allowed to march through a
Catholic area in Drumcree.
Demonstrators closed the international airport at Aldergrove, just outside
Belfast, by blocking its access roads.
Roads were also blocked at Bangor, Ballymena, Londonderry, Garvagh,
Coleraine and throughout Belfast. The RUC was yesterday advising motorists not
to travel unless the journey was absolutely necessary.
Last night, up to 2,000 police officers faced several thousand angry
loyalists in Co Armagh.
By nightfall the arrest tally had reached 22, mainly for public order
offences. A 19-year-old masked man was arrested on the outskirts of Portadown
carrying a crossbow as he attempted to hijack a lorry. A crate of petrol bombs
was found nearby.
Mr Trimble accused officers of "deliberate provocation" after they fired
plastic bullets at loyalists as soldiers set up a concrete and barbed wire
barricade on the Drumcree Road leading into the Catholic area of Garvaghy Road.
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The Independent, July 9, 1996
Numerous parades across the province took place in sympathy with the
Orangemen at Drumcree, including one, accompanied by bands, through the centre
of Portadown.
Loyalists hope that at least 300, 000 people will show their solidarity in a
protest in Drumcree on 12 July, the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.
Last night, the numbers of people at the site of the barred march at
Drumcree swelled assympathisers flooded in from all over the province.
The district Orange leader, Harold Gracey, warned: "We have our contingency
plans. I think the province is going to erupt," he added. "This is not just the
siege of Drumcree but the siege of Ulster."
Within the ,000-strong Catholic community, the feeling was of "resolute
determination" not to allow the Orangemen have their way again.
Breandan MacCionnaith of the Garvaghy Road Residents Association said: "We
have had two days of violence and there is no sign of the Unionist leaders
trying to control their people."
Another Catholic leader warned that it seemed too late for any compromises
to be made. "Things have gone too far, " he said.
Last night the focal point of the stand-off was generally peaceful. Orange
Order members who had been at the roadblock all day were replaced by members of
lodges from different parts of the province as darkness fell. The demonstrators
maintained a constant drumbeat.
The RUC said up to 70 roads in the province had been blocked by
demonstrators.
Police said it was too early to link the murder of a Catholic man near
Lurgan, a few miles from Portadown, with the sectarian disturbances in the town.
Part-time taxi-driver Michael McGoldrick, 31, from Lurgan, was found with
head injuries yesterday morning.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 09, 1996
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LEVEL 5 - 25 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Irish Times
The Irish Times
July 9, 1996, CITY EDITION
SECTION: HOME NEWS; THE DRUMCREE STAND-OFF; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 1520 words
HEADLINE: Brutal murder raises question of whether loyalist paramilitary
ceasefire has any chance of holding
After the brutal murder of Michael McGoldrick near Lurgan, the question being
asked was whether the loyalist paramilitary ceasefire has ended. The longer the
Drumcree stand off lasts, the more difficult the continuation of the ceasefire
becomes as loyalist paramilitary passions are stirred
BYLINE: By GERRY MORIARTY
BODY:
A MILITANT and maverick UVF commander in mid Ulster is being blamed for the
murder of Catholic taxi driver, Mr Michael McGoldrick, near Lurgan, Co Armagh,
sometime late on Sunday night or early yesterday morning.
The UVF leader, whom the central UVF leadership has had persistent difficulty
in controlling, operates in the Portadown Lurgan area. This year and last, he
was central in organising loyalist protests separate from the Orange protests.
The loyalist figure has either been directly responsible for, or
orchestrated, several murders in the mid Ulster area over the period of the
troubles. He has been a thorn in the side of the Combined Loyalist Military
Command (CLMC) which has been unable to bring him to book.
Whether this spells the end of the loyalist paramilitary ceasefire is still
unclear. Up to late last night, no paramilitary organisation had admitted the
killing although security sources, politicians and loyalist sources were in no
doubt that loyalist paramilitaries were responsible.
A UDA source blamed the mid-Ulster commander for Mr McGoldrick's murder. "He
has just been waiting for an excuse, and Drumcree has provided him with one. He
did this for his own selfish reasons, not for loyalism," said the UDA source,
who favours maintaining the ceasefire.
The Progressive Unionist Party (PUP), which has a direct line to the UVF, has
admitted on a number of occasions that the loyalist ceasefire in mid Ulster is
vulnerable. Since the collapse of the IRA ceasefire these mid-Ulster UVF
elements, and other UVF members in the Belfast area, have been agitating for a
return to loyalist violence.
In March, Sunday Life reported the emergence of a loyalist splinter group in
mid-Ulster, which described the ceasefire as a farce, and threatened to kill
Sinn Fein and IRA members. The paper featured a photograph of a hooded, armed
paramilitary. It is believed that the UVF mid-Ulster commander was behind this
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The Irish Times, July 9, 1996
purported splinter group, whose spokesman said was "neither UVF nor UDA".
Mr Billy Hutchinson of the PUP said he had been assured the UVF was not
involved in the killing and was adhering to the CLMC ceasefire. If it was
carried out by renegade loyalists, he was sure the UVF would investigate.
If the CLMC can blame dissident factions for the murder, or if it can be
branded a "freelance" sectarian murder, then perhaps the loyalist ceasefire may
hold. But there are so many other dangerous elements in the current political
and paramilitary equation that the possibility of it holding is becoming more
problematic.
The chief difficulty is that the CLMC does not exercise the same authority it
had when it called the loyalist ceasefire 21 months ago.
The PUP has been stressing that no one should underestimate the volatility of
the situation. The UVF has admitted difficulty in keeping its forces at heel.
The Drumcree stand off, and the violence flaring throughout Northern Ireland,
just adds to its control difficulties.
The UDA, which somewhat surprisingly has been able to maintain central
discipline, equally is under pressure from within its ranks.
"UDA members particularly recent recruits, are not the most political of
animals at the best of times. It's very difficult to predict what will happen in
the coming days," the UDA source said.
He underlined the overall dangers by revealing that after the IRA Manchester
bombing last month, the UVF requested a meeting of the UVF and UDA leadership
under the aegis of the CLMC. "The UDA refused the meeting because it just could
not believe what it was being told by the UVF. The UDA decided it would follow
its own path, " he said.
"The fact is the UVF has been unable to control some of its factions.
Everything is now up in the air," the source added.
He was scathing of the mainstream unionist parties which he claimed were not
interested in trying to reach political agreement at the Stormont talks.
"Sometimes I think they are more comfortable with conflict,' he said.
An additional element to the equation is how the IRA and the INLA will
respond. While the IRA has been operating a de facto ceasefire in Northern
Ireland, Mr McGoldrick's murder, and potential future loyalist violence, could
present the upper hand to those in the IRA who favour a resumption of its
violent campaign in the North.
One of the IRA's arguments for refusing to decommission is that it will not
leave Catholic areas "undefended from loyalists". Equally, the INLA has warned
in the past that it will strike against those who target Catholics.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, has appealed for calm in recent
days. He said yesterday. "Those who have orchestrated the events at Drumcree and
the campaign of protests across the North cannot wash their hands of
responsibility for the threats and violence and the death which have occurred as
a consequence.
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The Irish Times, July 9, 1996
He said dialogue was now urgently needed between nationalists and unionists.
"Last year and again some months ago, I wrote to the Rev Martin Smyth (Orange
Grand Master) suggesting that we meet. I would still like to arrange such a
meeting because I believe that this issue can only be effectively tackled if an
accommodation can be found which applies to every situation."
There seemed little likelihood of such a meeting last night. The Orange Order
and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the DUP argue that elements within what
they call "Sinn Fein/IRA" are involved in keeping the Garvaghy residents on the
boil.
The Garvaghy Residents Association denies this. Their protest is simply a
case of beleaguered nationalists demanding respite from Orange marches which are
bitterly resented in their area, they state.
The UUP and DUP leaders, Mr David Trimble and the Rev Ian Paisley condemned
Mr McGoldrick's murder. Mr Trimble did not accept that the accusations from Mr
McGoldrick's family that "fire and brimstone" speeches from certain politicians
contributed to Mr McGoldrick's death was an indictment of the mainstream
unionist parties' role in the Drumcree standoff.
Mr Trimble said he had consistently urged loyalist paramilitaries not "to be
provoked or manipulated into violence". He did not know who killed Mr
McGoldrick, although he suspected loyalist paramilitaries were to blame.
The Drumcree stand off was not of the Orange Order's seeking, he said. The
RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, had made the wrong decision in
re-routing the march. He said that "those handful of people who came to
Drumcree looking for a fight" were not welcome among the Orange brethren at
Drumcree.
Dr Paisley also said there was no linkage between Mr McGoldrick's killing and
the Drumcree stand off. "I don't think the murder has anything to do with
Drumcree whatsoever, and certainly not with those that are organising a
legitimate, peaceful protest against a decision that should not have been
taken, " he added.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 9, 1996
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LEVEL 5 - 26 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Irish Times
The Irish Times
July 9, 1996, CITY EDITION
SECTION: HOME NEWS; THE DRUMCREE STAND-OFF; Pg. 8
LENGTH: 1027 words
HEADLINE: Drumcree stand-off now likely to continue until marches on July 12th
BYLINE: By MARIE O'HALLORAN
DATELINE: PORTADOWN
BODY:
ALL the indications are that the stand-off at Drumcree in Portadown will
continue at least until Friday's July 12th holiday, the most important day in
the Orange calendar.
Across Northern Ireland the Orange Order, unionists and loyalists held
protest marches and blocked roads Violence erupted with lorries and cars
hijacked and burnt out or moved in to block road in Portadown up to 10 roads
were blocked off initially and five vehicles hijacked and set on fire.
At Drumcree, on the out skirts of the town, tension continued to mount during
the afternoon when British army engineers moved in to place cement blocks and
barbed wire down at the "front line" between marchers and police ranks.
On Sunday night, the engineers put in more barbed wire in the fields around
the church and leading to the nearby Catholic housing estates. There had been
sporadic fighting as well when police came under attack by the crowd and stones,
bottles and firecrackers were thrown. The police responded by firing flares into
the air and 17 plastic bullets, and moved in and pushed the crowd back.
Two people were injured. One of them was in intensive care in hospital and
was describes "ill but stable".
When the situation wads ginning to get uglier the rector of Drumcree parish,
the Rev John Pickering, appealed over the tannoy to people to stop throwing
stones.
The DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, called for calm. "This is a hard
struggle and we will only come through by unity. We're not here to play a game
but to save the country", he said.
He assured the crowd that "there will be peace and quiet tonight" and added
that he and the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble had been meeting
and "we plan to work together in regard to the future".
He told them that they would find a lot of things happening later on
yesterday. His prediction proved true as Orangemen and women blocked roads in
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The Irish Times, July 9, 1996
towns across the North.
As the night progressed the crowd dwindled to about 300 and people wrapped
themselves in sleeping bags and slept in the graveyard beside the Drumcree
church.
At 11 a.m. yesterday there was a small crowd at the Drumcree stand off.
Reports came in that two cement block lorries had been hijacked from a Catholic
owned yard. One was used to block the Edenderry area of the town and another was
burnt.
Protesters blocked roads into the town centre and petrol bombs were thrown at
the British army and police who moved in to clear them. The police fired plastic
bullets and there were angry scuffles but the police and army took control of
the city centre again.
Shops in the town began to close at noon. Motorists found it difficult to get
into the town because of roadblocks, some of which remained in place. At the
Edenderry roundabout police rerouted cars where one of the cement brick lorries
blocked the road.
Back at Drumcree the situation remained calm for much of the morning. Mr
Trimble came down to the barbed wire in the field to talk to journalists. He
appealed to loyalists not to allow themselves to be manipulated into violence,
and said their ceasefire must hold "no matter what the difficulties".
He said the RUC Chief Constable's motives "must be questioned" in the
decision he made to stop the parade going down the Garvaghy road. He added that
the Orange Order had done its best maintain calm and restraint but it was more
difficult "when the hours of darkness come".
Father Eamonn Stack of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Association said there
were 50 big parades in Portadown every year and "in our area we just want a bit
of space. I understand their traditions and traditions are hard to be broken.
They have to grow with time and that's not what's happening".
Mr Trimble said, however, that this was the only parade that went through the
area now, where before there had been seven.
Trouble flared again at 2.40 p.m. when British army engineers moved in with
trucks to put cement blocks and barbed wire down at the front line. There were
angry scenes when riot police pushed the protesters back from the graveyard, to
prevent stone throwing while the army put the barricade in place.
Mr Pickering told them that the police were "reorganising" themselves and
were not trying to push the "brethren" back up to the church. Mr Trimble stood
on the front line and appealed for calm.
Eventually tensions eased and the scene became almost picnic like as
protestors, police and media sat about in the fields waiting for what would
happen next.
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
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LEVEL 5 - 27 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Daily Telegraph plc
The Daily Telegraph
July 8, 1996, Monday
SECTION: Pg. 01
LENGTH: 904 words
HEADLINE: Loyalists threaten to halt Ulster over march ban
BYLINE: By Toby Harnden in Portadown
BODY:
MISSILES were thrown at riot police last night as they faced thousands of
Orangemen in a tense confrontation at Portadown, where a march through a
nationalist area has been blocked. Helicopters circled and five battalions of
troops remained on stand-by, many of them at Mahon Barracks in the town. The
skirmish coincided with a threat by Orange leaders that they planned to bring
Ulster to "a standstill" and a warning that the loyalist ceasefire could be
broken if the RUC continued to block the march. Police, who numbered more than
2,000, were earlier attacked with stones and bottles when a youth was arrested
for poking a flag into an officer's face. Riot shields appeared and guns loaded
with plastic bullets were brought forward and calm was quickly restored. At
Newtownards, Co Down, more than 100 Orangemen blocked the main roads. They
pledged to continue their action for as long as the Portadown Orangemen were
barred from following their traditional route. There was a similar protest at
Bangor, where the main Belfast to Dublin road was blocked. Smaller
demonstrations in Dromore, Carrickfergus and Ballymena passed off without
incident. In Portadown the Orangemen had tried to march down the nationalist
Garvaghy Road after a church service at nearby Drumcree. Among them was David
Trimble, the Ulster Unionist leader, who accused Sir Hugh Annesley, the RUC
chief constable, of having "very foolishly gambled with the peace of Northern
Ireland". Ian Paisley, the Democratic Unionist leader, harangued the police.
He said: "We have all the might and all the power of the British Government
against us, aided and abetted by the skunks of Dublin and the treacherous and
villainous IRA. " He added that Ulster was "worth fighting for and worth dying
for". Thousands of loyalists, including dozens of families, thronged the town in
support of the Orangemen. Also present were members of the paramilitary Ulster
Volunteer Force, who said that they were prepared to end their ceasefire. There
were reports that Orangemen would try to block airports, ports and roads to
press the authorities into allowing the Drumcree march to go ahead. Three
members of the Dublin parliament were among those gathered with nationalists on
the other side of the police lines at Drumcree. Declan Bree, Sean Maloney and
Joe Costello said that they had been invited to act as observers. The RUC
decided to re-route the parade after protests from residents in housing estates
off the Garvaghy Road that it would be "sectarian, triumphalist and
provocative". Rioting erupted last year when about 700 Orangemen were prevented
from walking down Garvaghy Road because a protest by nationalists posed a threat
to public order. Some 15,000 Orangemen from all over the province descended on
the area and remained there for three days. A compromise was eventually reached,
with Orangemen marching down the road in silence. This year the police were well
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1996 The Daily Telegraph plc, July 8, 1996
prepared and mounted the biggest security operation since the IRA ceasefire
began in August 1994. Overnight the Army put up hundreds of yards of barbed wire
fencing in fields alongside the route to hamper any attempt to outflank the
RUC. Harold Gracey, the district master of the Orange Order in Portadown, said
that Orangemen would remain at Drumcree for up to a week. Friday is the most
important day of the Orange calendar when the Protestant victory at the Battle
of the Boyne in 1690 is commemorated. "Now it is a waiting game," Mr Gracey
said. "If we can hold out for as long as possible, I can assure you that the
rest of the province will be showing their strength too." Facing the police
lines, he said: "We are staying here until such time as we get permission to
walk our traditional route. It is a sad state of affairs when Her Majesty's
forces stop Her Majesty's subjects from parading on Her Majesty's highway and I
hope that you people blocking our way take that into account." There were cries
of "no surrender" from Orangemen. After last year's stand-off, the Orange Order
struck a "Siege of Drumcree" medal. Mr Gracey said: "This year there is a ring
of steel around Portadown, so it's now the siege of Portadown. It's also the
siege of Ulster, because if we fail in this we are finished and I think the
Protestant people know this." The parade to the church service started at
10. 25am outside the Portadown District Lodge in the town centre. Mr Trimble,
wearing his Drumcree medal, was at its head. His display of unity with Mr
Paisley at Drumcree last year was instrumental in his success in the contest for
the leadership of the Ulster Unionist Party. Accordion bands played Nearer My
God to Thee and There'll be no Dark Valley as the Orangemen processed solemnly
through a loyalist area to the church on a hill overlooking Portadown. The bands
were silent as they passed the Roman Catholic church of St John's. But some
Orangemen made two-fingered gestures at the RUC and a few nationalists watching
from behind the police. Several hundred Orangemen packed into the church for the
service, which was relayed to their brethren in a hall next door. Others sat on
tombstones smoking cigarettes and chatting. The Rev John Pickering, the rector,
said in his sermon: "We live in a divided society, a picture of which you can
see in the barbed wire across the fields today. We are anxious about how we will
fare in the days ahead and must pray fervently to God for help."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 12, 1996
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LEVEL 5 - 28 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Daily Telegraph plc
The Daily Telegraph
July 8, 1996, Monday
SECTION: Pg. 20
LENGTH: 1042 words
HEADLINE: The IRA trap that yawns in front of the fifes and drums As the RUC
blocks an Orange march in Portadown, Ruth Dudley Edwards explains why the
southern Irish do not understand that the marches are a vital safety valve for
Protestants
BYLINE: By RUTH DUDLEY EDWARDS
BODY:
TO THE outside world, the insistence of Portadown Orangemen on parading down
a traditional route, despite residents' objections, is irrational and
provocative. To most Protestants throughout Northern Ireland, they are seen to
have no choice: "If we give way," said a local Orangeman, "the Orange Order and
the Protestant people are finished. Just because the IRA aren't shooting us at
the moment doesn't mean the war is over." Frightened but resolute, the men of
Portadown District Loyal Orange Lodge No 1 find themselves designated as
champions of the Protestants of Ulster, charged with demonstrating that they
will not give in to the IRA jackboot. Portadown is the Protestant Mecca - the
site of the formation of the Orange Order. Since 1807, its LOL No 1 has held a
July parade to and from Drumcree Parish Church. In 1987 - because of demographic
changes - the RUC insisted they abandon their traditional route. The consequent
anger took some years to evaporate, for since the secretly negotiated
Anglo-Irish Agreement had been announced two years previously - precipitating
widespread Loyalist violence - Ulster Protestants believed their culture, their
values and their traditions to be under threat. Fears that a pan-nationalist
consensus will triumph and the British will rat on the Union have added to their
insecurity. Last year, when they emerged from their church, the lodge was
informed by the RUC that despite earlier official authorisation, because of a
nationalist sit-down protest on the Garvaghy Road, they would have to change
their route. Smarting under the cumulative effect of widespread curbs and bans
on marches and knowing that most of the Garvaghy Road was neutral territory, the
men in the citadel of Orangism refused to budge: "The Prods could take no more,' "
says the song that celebrates what became known as the siege of Drumcree. Local
Orangemen were joined by 30,000 Protestants from all over the Province. David
Trimble - the local MP but an ordinary Orange foot soldier - succeeded, with
Harold Gracey, the District Grand Master, in stopping a riot by damping down
violence behind the scenes while preserving Protestant self-respect; after a
two-day stand-off, a silent parade of locals was permitted a symbolic walk down
Garvaghy Road. Between Sinn Fein spin doctors and the Ulster Protestant genius
for getting a bad press even when in the right, Drumcree was represented almost
everywhere as proof that triumphalist Protestant bigotry was alive and well. But
the event passed swiftly into Protestant mythology: the hot-headed element
within the Order formed the Spirit of Drumcree pressure group. For the local
lodge, the burden has been great, for they know that both Green and Orange
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1996 The Daily Telegraph plc, July 8, 1996
trouble-makers are spoiling for a fight. The more paranoid believe in a
Dublin-led conspiracy to break the spirit of the Portadown Orangamen and thus
destroy the Orange Order and hence the Protestant people. They are wrong about
Dublin but right about a conspiracy. When Dick Spring, the Irish Foreign
Minister, explains that marches in Northern Ireland should not take place where
they are not "welcome", he is guilty only of naivete: the southern Irish have
not the faintest understanding that Orange marches are a vital safety valve for
beleaguered and insecure Ulster Protestants. Wishful thinking prevents them
grasping that Sinn Fein/IRA are blocking marches in the hope of goading
Loyalists into ending their ceasefire and thus being blamed for the resumption
of violence. Sinn Fein/IRA are the driving force behind groups which are
springing up all over Northern Ireland bearing such names as the "Lower Ormeau
Concerned Community" group (LOCC) A week ago Orangemen marching to a service
commemorating the Battle of the Somme were stopped by the RUC from passing
through the Ormeau Road, which makes them more determined than ever that there
should be no capitulation at Drumcree: "Why should these bastards, who want the
state overthrown, be supported by the Crown forces in blocking the free movement
of people intensely loyal to their state?" a normally gentle Orangeman asked me.
The RUC, of course, are in an impossible situation. They strive impartially to
make decisions on routes in the interests of public order, while knowing, as one
put it, that: "When we end up enforcing the democratic rights of Republicans,
they give us no credit, continue to demonise us and will probably soon be
murdering us again." The Ormeau Road ban raised the temperature at Drumcree.
There, while many of the Garvaghy Road committee are innocent of involvement
with Sinn Fein, others such as their smooth-tongued front man, Brendan McKenna,
are long-standing Republican hardliners. Orangemen won't talk to him, but it
would be pointless anyhow. Despite mediation attempts locally and nationally,
residents' spokesmen explain that in no circumstances will they tolerate any
parade. And to put further pressure on the RUC to take their side, a three-day
Garvaghy Road festival was launched on Friday. What makes this confrontation
delicious for Sinn Fein/IRA is that David Trimble, recently winning plaudits for
constructive leadership, will return to the spotlight represented as an Orange
bigot. The lodge has already reduced its bands and cut its parades down the road
from seven to one: it asks only to be allowed to make the 15-minute walk in
silence. Its members know that should the Protestants be faced down, the Sinn
Fein strategists will pick on another route, another march and in due course
will resist marches by the British Legion or the Girls' Brigade, or any other
public events that can credibly be represented as "hurtful" to nationalist
feelings. Someone has to lose the Drumcree confrontation. If the day is won by a
tiny number of residents - some intimidated into protest by local thugs -
augmented by busloads from Londonderry and the Falls Road and led by the nose by
Sinn Fein activists, the resulting humiliation will almost certainly force the
loyalist paramilitaries - already enraged by bombs in England - to fall into the
IRA trap and fire the first shots. Ruth Dudley Edwards is the author, inter
alia, of Patrick Pearse: The Triumph of Failure and The Pursuit of Reason: The
Economist 1843-1993
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 12, 1996
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Page 83
LEVEL 5 - 29 OF 30 STORIES
Copyright 1996 The Irish Times
The Irish Times
July 8, 1996, CITY EDITION
SECTION: HOME NEWS; Pg. 9
LENGTH: 1600 words
HEADLINE: Deadlock as Orangemen have their Alamo at Drumcree
BYLINE: By MARIE O'HALLORAN
DATELINE: PORTADOWN
BODY:
LAST year it was called the siege of Drumcree. This year it's Ulster's
Alamo, as the district Orange master, Mr Harold Gracey, described it.
The Rev Ian Paisley, however, warned that this year it was not just the siege
of Drumcree but "the siege of the province, the siege of the whole of the United
Kingdom".
Preparations all around were siege like for this Orange march and the route
of its proposed return journey from the Church of the Ascension at Drumcree, on
the outskirts, back down to the Carleton Orange Hall in the town centre.
Overnight on Saturday, British army engineers cordoned off the fields
surrounding the church with barbed wire as some 2,000 RUC officers and scores of
British soldiers were drafted into the Co Armagh town.
At 9.15 am. yesterday, the Orange Order held a press conference in the
Carleton hall at which The district master, Mr Gracey, said of the RUC decision
not to allow the parade down the Garvaghy Road. "We are of the opinion that this
is a politically motivated decision taken to appease republicanism. It is a
dangerous concession to those who threaten violence to achieve their ends.
"As an organisation we are committed to civil and religious liberty.
Therefore, in all conscience, we cannot accept any rerouting and we demand the
restoration of our rights. We are determined to stand fast for our faith and
freedom.' They would stand firm if it took a minute, a day, a week or a year.
The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, an Orangeman, said the
RUC had fallen into a trap.
Shortly after 10 a.m. the 1,200 or SO Orangemen set out, accompanied by three
accordion hands. They walked along the road and up the hill for three miles to
the church at Drumcree, as local people lined the streets and watched the parade
pass by.
Shortly after 11.30 a.m. the church service, led by the Rev John Pickering,
began. He said it was the help of Almighty God which brought an end to last
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Page 84
The Irish Times, July 8, 1996
year's problem. "The problem in Portadown affects the whole of Northern Ireland
and the peace process."
Outside the church, a woman handed out Romewatch newsletters the lead story
said a Catholic nun had been responsible for thousands of deaths in Rwanda.
After the service at about 12.20 pm. Mr Gracey said Drumcree had become
"Ulster's Alamo". The world was watching. He hoped nobody would be injured
during what happens in the next few hours we will stand firm and march our
traditional route".
At 12.50 pm the Orange parade marched down the hill to the RUC men and women
standing shoulder to should in bullet proof vests blocking the road. Behind them
were parked rows of police Land Rovers. In the fields lay more RUC officers with
riot helmets and shields.
Orangemen and others stood in the graveyard overlooking the blockade, and
hundreds more gathered beside the parade. An RUC officer told the crowd the
parade was not allowed to go by that route "by order 4.1. of the Public Order
Act Mr Gracey told the crowd and the police. "It is a sad state of affairs when
her majesty's forces stop her majesty's subjects from marching on her majesty's
highways and I hope that you people who are blocking our way take that into
account".
He told the crowd. "If we hold out as long as possible, the rest of our
Province in a few hours will show their stand too. The people around the
Province are heading this way.
"There is a ring of steel around Portadown. It is a siege of Portadown and of
Ulster. If we fail in this we are finished. Dick Spring is behind this through
the Maryfield Secretariat."
After that the bands marched back up the hill with some of the Orangemen.
Some members of the order stayed behind with the large crowd in front of the
police. People strolled up and down the hill and waited.
At 2.40 p.m. the Rev Martyn Smyth, the Orange Order leader, addressed the
crowd outside the church. Those who had asked for compromise over Garvaghy Road
had only one view, he said. "It was their way or no other way. "
Asking the crowd to be controlled, he said he knew some people "fly off the
handle" sooner than others. "Contain yourselves and by what your marshalls.
At 2.50 pm. Mr Smyth, Mr Trimble and Mr Gracey gave a press conference in the
nearby hall. Mr Smyth said there would be protest marches around the North
during the week. All were non committal about reports that it would be like the
loyalist strike of 1974.
Mr Trimble said. "There will be no violence in Drumcree. The Orange Order
will ensure that its members behave responsibly. "
He said through intermediaries they had been in touch with the residents on
Garvaghy road but there would be no compromise at all.
At 3 p.m. the first reports came in of road blocks in Lisburn and Maghera.
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Page 85
The Irish Times, July 8, 1996
"If the security services can block the roads, so can we," said Mr Smyth.
Asked if he condoned the breaking of the law, he said that if it was breaking
the law the people had no other way.
Afterwards the three men marched down to the blockade, again to loud cheers,
and addressed the swelling numbers of people. After they left and went back up
to the church, the crowd continued teasing the RUC trying to get a reaction.
"You'd have to talk in Gaelic for them to understand" shouted an onlooker.
At 3.20 p.m. a young man began waving the Ulster flag and running it over the
heads and faces of two RUC officers. A man who was drunk fell through the hedge
on the side of the road. The crowd lunged, stones were thrown and within seconds
the mood had turned ugly and the RUC had donned helmets and riot shields. They
pulled the man with the flag through the crowd and arrested him for assaulting
police officers.
Then Mr Gracey and Mr Trimble came through the crowd and talked to the man
who had been arrested. Mr Trimble told the media he was "optimistic that it
would be settled in a couple of days", and "of course" they would march down the
Garvaghy Road.
"We're dealing with a very dangerous situation," the Ulster Unionist leader
said. There were enough police resources on hand to have dealt with any problems
on the Garvaghy road.
At 4 p.m. a huge cheer went up from the by now huge crowd as the Rev Ian
Paisley came down the hill. In front of the RUC Land Rovers he said it was not
just the siege of Drumcree, but the siege of the province and of the whole
United Kingdom. "I am behind you every minute. I'm with you all the way. It is
going to be a long, hard struggle."
With Mr Gracy and the Orange order chaplain, Rev Tom Taylor, they then walked
through the police cordon to talk to the officers in charge.
Asked by reporters what they had discussed with the police Dr Paisley said,
"that's our business. I don't think the media want to hear."
Mr Taylor said afterwards that "Mr Paisley thinks he's doing the right thing.
He helped to resolve the situation last year".
His view of how long the stand off would continue. "I reckon they can hold
out for a week."
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH
LOAD-DATE: July 8, 1996
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