Front group – I know you are, what are they
Dog bites man – North Belfast SF member praises front group and attacks alternative
It’s an open secret that Sinn Féin’s influence has been reduced to some extent in North Belfast Republican communities in general and Ardoyne in particular. Much of it seems to centre on members of the Republican Network for Unity creating or supporting alternatives to community structures long dominated by the shinners (though people supportive of other political groups and none are clearly involved too)
Gerry Kelly’s statement supporting the SF dominated CARA (Crumlin Ardyone Residents Association) and attacking Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective (GARC) following the Loyalist ‘Tour of the North’ parade indicates where SF see their challenges in North Belfast – with a nationalist residents group, not unwanted parades:
GARC is self-styled, non-elected and constituted, it would seem, for the sole purpose of undermining other residents groups and undermining possible peaceful resolutions to existing issues.
The GARC claim they were set up:
In September a meeting took place in Ardoyne Hall attended by a large group of local people, most of who left after being informed that they couldn’t be members of C.A.R.A (a Sinn Fein dominated group with their own agenda which represents no-one’s interests other than their own) because they didn’t live within a particular catchment area.
Though as I noted back in 2008 when SF started to lose influence in the St James area of West Belfast they come out fighting, so Kelly’s attitude to a group of residents outside his party’s control is nothing new.
ADDS: The GARC have adopted a slogan of ‘No Parades, No Violence’ – and I agree with Gerry Kelly they should be challenged over this. It is a ridiculous phrase and reads like a threat.
ArdEoin Republican
Surely the “determination of the P.S.N.I. in forcing the parade through at all costs” is simply a function of their duty to enforce the legislation and/or parades directive issued to them rather than this being something within which they can apply their discretion or is something else being implied here ?
Also, can you provide a break down of the £650k costs estimate and paticularly highlight the proportion of that attributable directly to the damage inflicted by residents and/or their co-travellers from the non-orange side, whether actual residents or their ‘allies’ from other nationalist districts ? I’m not being judgmental in mentioning this, if the cost issue is one which flies then as I’m sure you’ll agree we should not be bandying about figures loosely without analysing them properly.
Thanks
Battle of the Bogside says:
11 June 2010 at 5:34 pm
The British state and its policies result in the obscene lingering death of many thousands. Children, as well as adults, die on a daily basis as a direct result of British government instruction.
The British Queen sits decked in gold and jewels while children starve to death as a direct result of British state fascist dogma
I would like to see you stand by this one Johno.
Both sides write stuff I find unacceptable. It’s the nature of the site – I suppose if you don’t like it you leave…
Oh no, not this time of year again.
More of an embarrassed climb down than a response
Does the local Loyalist flute band Pride of Ardoyne also provoke this threat of violence if they want to march locally? It seems a bit harsh on them if it does.
Where are they meant to go?
I saw there were people from ”Loyalist Ardoyne” on The Tour of the North – as they had that embroidered on their shirts.
And I presume they couldn’t march all the way home past the Ardoyne shops (their local shops) without it turning into a riot.
As an Englishman I don’t really get this.
?
Re ‘self-harm’ & ‘the costs’: the real harm is not the physical injury, nor is it to do with how others (such as Noneoftheabove) see the oppressed (the lumpenproletariat or it’s ‘teenage ‘trash”), and the real cost surely is not monetary. The real harm to self and the real cost to the nationalist community, to the Unionist community, and to society at large was to self-respect, self-esteem, community, human dignity, human rights.
Portadown wasn’t Selma or Alabama when the Orange riots started (200+ years ago).
Thanks for the mention Anne Warren. I wonder will ‘Noneof theabove’ be bothered …?
Noneoftheabove – see ORANGECITADEL.BLOGSPOT.COM
It’s written by a member of the lumpenproletariat (aka ‘the unwashed ragtag mob’ from the Tunnel) – proud to have been ‘teenage trash’ etc.
mahallam
…am I supposed to be impressed or surprised by anything on/within that blog ?
mahallam
I don’t necessarily disagree with most of that as a matter of fact. I just wonder what contribution to precisely those aspects is made by non-peaceful protests by disenfranchised nationalists ?
How would I know what surprises you – on/within anything. The blog is there to infrom – not surprise.
Were you informed by anything in/on/within that blog ?
Re. contribution of non-peaceful… I guess you’d have to have been there to understand.
But then, I guess you wouldn’t have been there.
Bye.