Friday, June 15, 2007
Leave the blue bags at home
The Loyal Orders and various band organisations have united in a public call for people not to drink alcohol and respect bye-laws against public drinking at this year’s Twelfth celebration to ensure a positive family atmosphere.
Fair Deal @ 09:48 AM
“… public call for people not to drink alcohol and respect bye-laws against public drinking at this year’s Twelfth celebration.”
Hear, hear! Sure they can leave the Bucky-guzzling for the night before while attending paramilitary displays and ritual Tricolour-burning.
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 10:17 AMMore significantly, the Scottish Grand Master is calling for the anti-Catholicism to be left behind:
http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=929152007
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 10:20 AMExpect to see attendance halved this year if this is enforced!
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 10:30 AMThere is more chance of the ghost of King Billy turning up on a white charget to lead the parade than the Blue Bag Brigade have of leaving their carryout behind.
As for the Orange Order in scotland wanting to drop the anti-catholicism a nice gesture but impossible given the nature of the Orange Orders most basic rules. Members can’t date catholics, or even be the god parent of a catholic friends child. Part of their monthly ritual is to say a prayer “To save catholics from false doctrine and make them see the true way”. If that isn’t fundamantally sectarian I don’t know what is.
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 10:46 AMGlensman - the streets would be nearly as empty of loyalists as Slugger is empty of shinners at the moment ;)
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 10:58 AMHas Drew Nelson been with the prawn sandwich brigade every 12th if he thinks that it is only now that the Devil’s buttermilk now starting to impact the fringes of the days frivolity ?
More nonsense from the Orders about creating a day out for ALL the people of NI etc.... Geobbels would be proud.
I would like to hear Drew expressing sentiments like those of the Scottish grand master.
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 11:02 AM“Leave the blue bags at home”
There’s more chance of Elvis making a comeback in The Spring and Airbrake…
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 11:10 AMwhat we’re witnessing is growing self-esteem in the two communities, as now the peace is bedding down, both sides feel better about themselves.
No longer are SF berated on every TV/Radio Show, neither is Paisley and his ilk barracked non-stop for being bigots.
So the transformation continues apace, and this is welcome news; you could call it Prod outreach, however the sceptisism here is normal too.None of this applies to ATW where peacemakers are seen as Evil. The exact revolting words from David Vance yesterday.
Is his condition treatable, thats what I wonder?Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 11:20 AMvery negative stuff lads.
We ask them to show a bit of leadership and give the masses a bit of a steer......
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 11:21 AMleave the blue bags at home and get the LIDL ones instead, better class of drinker
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 11:24 AMOr is this a weak-willed attempt to pre-empt the inevitable criticism that will come their way around the 13th July?
“Well, you see, we did ask our real supporters not to drink thousands of bottles of WKD blue on the side of the road, and vomit all over the streets, and drunkenly attack attack anyone who isn’t from their street, or wearing a sash, so clearly our real supporters have nothing to do with the mess that’s left, and you’ll have to look elsewhere for those responsible. Nothing to do with us at all really.”
They should also be made to pay for the clean-up after they leave roads and streets lookin like landfill sites.
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 11:24 AMWhen Orange Pipe Bands are marching past playing songs with lyrics such as “We are up to our necks in Fenian Blood, Surrender or you’ll die”, does it really matter whether or not some low-life bystanders have a blue bag or not?
If they want to tackle sectarianism in a genuine way, maybe they should address the disgraceful sectarian tunes played by the majority of “bands” in their parades…
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 11:28 AM“to ensure a positive family atmosphere.”
Because you want to get the whole family involved when you are burning effigy of the Pope, Granny can douse it in petrol, the kids can set it alight, wonderful! What utter nonsense, the only way the OO will make itself relevant and acceptable in the 21st century is to disappear.
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 11:50 AMWill the May disaster mean that the shinners will have to change their plans this year and play the Orange card ?
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 11:55 AMmacswiney
I worked in one of a handful of Catholic-owned pubs in Ballymena for 6 years. Every year, approaching the twelth there would be parades up the street, which had the three most prominent Catholic pubs in the town at intervals along its length. We would close the door in advance and the bands would march up the street playing, as you say, “disgraceful sectarian tunes”, and outside the door of each pub they would stop, the flutes would stop playing, and the drums would continue to beat out the rhythm. Missiles would rain against the front of the building. It was blood-curdling stuff, all carried out under the nose of the local police.
That was between 5 and 10 years ago, so not exactly ancient history either.
I should say though that there were honourable exceptions. I remember watching on one occasion from an upstairs window, as one of the Orange marshalls placed himself across our front door, with his mace held across his body and, at considerable personal risk, fended off a crowd, in their sashes, who were intent on kicking in the door.
Awful times, but what you say about control of bands and how they do what they do is important.
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 11:58 AMGood, sensible move. I can honestly say I’ve never seen two sober grown men fighting. Drink is the biggest threat to all the local agreements made across the marching season.
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 12:02 PMWhat about the PSNI enforcing the by laws about drinking. Quite content in grabbing a student or two on the Golden Mile for drinking a can of beer, 364 days in the year, the forces of law and order always turn a blind eye to the thousands of drunks coat trailing the Orange Order marches on the 12th. As they turn a blind eye to the activities of sectarian nonesense associated with the 11th night.
Surely the average 11th night activities break every equality law passed in the six counties?Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 12:05 PMWith the recognition that compromise is necessary for stable government North and South things are moving fast. The Greens are part of government in the South and there is no reason to believe that parties representing the Orange cannot equally take part in the future.
Of course all sides will have to change and modernise but that’s a fact of life. Remember that all politicans fail in the end.
Traditional unionism is in flux right down to it’s roots in the OO. Sinn Fein led the way twenty years ago when it endorsed democratic methods in order to change the status quo. It’s taken a while for the wiser heads in the ‘Love Ulster’ brigade to realise that threats of violence won’t work anymore. Good to see them posting here.
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 12:12 PM“Sinn Fein led the way twenty years ago when it endorsed democratic methods in order to change the status quo.”
I must have missed the SF condemnations of IRA violence after 1987
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 12:25 PMGod and Gargle = a good day out for the OO on ‘the Twalfth’.
According to the good Protestant ethos it is only papist fenians that takes a sup of porter agus uisce bheatha?
Nasc fola eadrainn!
When are folk gonna finally ditch all the trappings of religious mumbo jumbo, include the Catholic church too. Even the regalia is so meaningless today and looks so fucking stupid! Sometimes, it’s well worth ditching traditions that are really milestones around our neck.Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 12:37 PM“I must have missed the SF condemnations of IRA violence after 1987”
Sorry Cruimh, but look on the bright side. No sackcloth and ashes for Sinn Fein then means no sackcloth and ashes for the unionists now that they are beginning to come in from the cold. Surely the emergence of two governments in Ireland, both composed of people and parties diametrically opposed to each other shows that pragmatism rules.
Whatever happens next will come peacefully and democratically. The unionist parties have condemned republicans for their attempt at ‘unionist outreach’. Let’s see how long it takes for them to attempt to emulate it.
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 12:42 PM“Has Drew Nelson been with the prawn sandwich brigade every 12th if he thinks that it is only now that the Devil’s buttermilk now starting to impact the fringes of the days frivolity ?”
..Er.. no, but he said it’s been getting worse in recent years. Anyone disagree?
“More nonsense from the Orders about creating a day out for ALL the people of NI etc.... Geobbels would be proud.”
Godwin would be proud of you too. What do you suggest should happen on the 12th then? Are you seriously saying that people want a drunken punchup in preference to a carnival?
“I would like to hear Drew expressing sentiments like those of the Scottish grand master.”
He did. Yesterday. On “The biggest balloon in the country’s biggest show in the country"-quote-"We are not an anti-catholic organisation, we are pro-Protestant”
“When Orange Pipe Bands are marching past playing songs with lyrics such as “We are up to our necks in Fenian Blood, Surrender or you’ll die”, does it really matter whether or not some low-life bystanders have a blue bag or not?”
Time to actually take off the blinkers and see what’s there, not what you think is there. Pipe bands don’t march, they generally shuffle. They play traditional Scots and Irish melodies to a high standard, and the tune to which you refer is not part of their repertoire
“If they want to tackle sectarianism in a genuine way, maybe they should address the disgraceful sectarian tunes played by the majority of “bands” in their parades”
Well no doubt we are by definition sectarian, in that we are an organisation for Protestants, but then there’s nothing wrong with a proper appreciation of your own culture as opposed to mere drunken bigotry. Doubtless some see nothing wrong with the odd chorus of “Sean South of Garryowen” at chucking out time on Paddy’s Day ,or a singsong at a Wolfe Tones “concert” which would never float my boat, but I don’t presume to seek the eradication of such dubious outlets of culture.
You see what’s really scaring the MOPEists here is that when the Orange is responding to reasonable complaints about alcohol misuse at parades etc they’ll soon run out of theings to complain about-except for the fact that we’re different. You can’t hack the idea that there are forty shades of green- one of which is..er..Orange. You have to have one shade only, and if there are blue bags galore on 17th March or all-Ireland final day you don’t give a damn. You’re more like us than you care to admit- as even Jude Collins admitted yesterday. But that attacks the fundamental premise of all MOPEry.
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 12:49 PM‘Well no doubt we are by definition sectarian, in that we are an organisation for Protestants,.....’
Darth,
Why do believe in such stuff, because it was passed down to you?Have you never doubted your faith?
Do you fully believe in the bible and the gospels?
Do you really believe it is the word of god?
Incredible stuff!
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 01:00 PMPounder (surely Punter?)’..To save catholics from false doctrine and make them see the true way”
Just replace ‘Catholics’ with ‘protestants’ and you have the title of the first chapter of ‘Republicanism for Dummies.’
But:
THOSE ORANGE ORDER BEHAVIOUR RULES IN FULL:
1. The only acceptable mixer in any devils buttermilk is traditional Fanta.
2. Mixers are for fenians. No mixers allowed.
3. Coats to be worn except at interface area when coats to be removed and trailed.
4. Director for Republican engagement to be appointed to increase catholic participation on 11th night.
5. Director of Republican engagement to be burnt on bonfire* to close proceedings. * or effigy where s/he is not personally present.
6. Each lodge to ensure that regulation red rag and bull are carried at all times.
7. All Kick the Pope Bands to be rebranded as kinetic papal engagement outreach folk groups.
8. Urination in gardens this year in odd numbered houses only.
9. Defecation in gardens restricted to lodge members under 6 and over 80.
10. Swords only to be drawn when all other peaceful means of getting to the burger van have been exhausted.
11. In any case, all swords to be beaten into ploughshares.
12. All fenians to be killed with ploughshares.
ENDS
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 01:01 PMNo comment on the Grand Master of Scotland’s comments, darth?
Posted by on Jun 15, 2007 @ 01:02 PM
