orange order – Page 3 – Slugger O'Toole

The Republicans are coming! Chittick on the Irish language

David McCann on February 1, 2014, 8:53 pm

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As many of you know Linda Ervine has been leading efforts for years now to make Protestants more aware of their contribution to the development and maintenance of the Irish language. There have been a variety of events held in places like East Belfast to demonstrate how much of our everyday language is actually linked to Irish. Well, today the Grand Master of the Belfast Orange Order George Chittick, decided to add his two cents on whether Protestants should be …

McGuinness: in the city of Belfast the UVF, the PUP and the Orange Order are one and the same thing // Robinson responds to the “dictator” deputy First Minister

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on January 16, 2014, 10:59 pm

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The moment that draft seven of the Haass proposals went into the shredder may well have been at 10:45pm when BBC NI’s The View broadcast deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness telling Mark Carruthers: Mainstream unionist elected representatives have told me that they accept my analysis that in the city of Belfast the UVF, the PUP and the Orange Order are one and the same thing … I believe it needs to be challenged. Just as I have challenged those so-called …

McCann meets….John McCallister MLA

David McCann on October 10, 2013, 8:35 pm

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Yesterday I sat down with NI21 deputy leader, John McCallister. In our interview we spoke about the upcoming NI21 conference, his relations with the UUP and the summer violence we have experienced. On his relations with the UUP; The hardest part (of leaving) was the strain that might put on some of this friendships and some people feeling diappointed or let down. When I look now and see where the UUP is…it has literally lost all sense of direction or …

No #Twaddell from Parades Commission

John Ó Néill on October 2, 2013, 12:54 pm

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The Parades Commission has given its response to the ‘Twaddell Initiative‘ put forward by Unionists and the Orders. Not only does it say No, but it publicly deconstructs how it was first made aware of proposal by the media and dismissed the grounds for a late application, the failure to abide by its ruling for the 12th July parade and continued breaches of its determinations. It was abundantly plain that that would be the case (although there is still Nigel …

More #Twaddell: DUP, dupes and duplicity.

John Ó Néill on September 30, 2013, 12:56 pm

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The onus is now upon nationalism to show leadership and to respond positively to this genuine attempt to reach accommodation. They must face down the elements in their community who wish to drag Northern Ireland back. So says DUP ‘leader’ Peter Robinson, but presumably not in reference to his party members who were advocating burning tricolours, defacing religious statues, indulging in murder fantasies, okay with assaults on the mayor or happy to be seen at UVF parades. Robinson was actually …

Alex Kane on how Unionism can learn from Sinn Féin

John Ó Néill on July 22, 2013, 4:22 pm

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Are we seeing more signposts to the future of unionism today? The Newsletter’s Alex Kane has a piece out on “Unionism can learn from Sinn Féin” while it appears to suggest that, in reality, it is currently trying to learn from Fianna Fáil. Kane trots out the same line about ‘cultural war’ that was raised at the field on the Twelfth by the Orange Order. Somewhat diminishing the point, the BBC usefully led this story with Edwin Stevenson’s comments at the …

Belfast No 3 District signals #Ardoyne as new Drumcree

John Ó Néill on July 19, 2013, 3:35 pm

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There was a strong hint today that unionism is heading towards a Drumcree-style approach at Ardoyne. After the announcement from the Parades Commission that Belfast No 2 District will also be restricted from parading the section of the Crumlin Road from Woodvale to Hesketh Road this Saturday, Belfast No 3 District have applied to march the same route on 3rd August. If you want a quick view of the Drumcree approach, see Ryan’s take on it here: Is this the …

Belfast No 2 District wants to try again: #Ardoyne

John Ó Néill on July 17, 2013, 4:15 pm

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Belfast No. 2 District have now applied to parade along the same section that they walked last Friday morning, but were restricted from in the evening. Presumably, they now feel suitably fortified with the Assembly’s motion on the Parade’s Commission’s ‘illogical determination’ in their hip pocket, despite the fact that, due to AK47 NI21 not supporting the motion, it didn’t even win the support of all unionists. Since it was Belfast No.2 District that were involved last Friday, I am sure the Parades Commission …

Time for the Orange and the DUP to take a one way bet on the future?

Mick Fealty on July 15, 2013, 6:50 pm

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I’m not sure I agree that Chris’s account of this Twelfth is quite as comprehensive as John implies, but it does highlight why defending the loyal orders right to march on the public highway might be such a hard sell. It’s nine years since Gerry Kelly had his arm broken defending a British soldier from a republican mob in Ardoyne. The tensions in north Belfast each summer are palpable. And it is hardly surprising. The area suffers a heady mix …

If we are going to put an end to this mindless cycle of violence every summer…

Mick Fealty on July 14, 2013, 2:06 pm

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Regular Journal.ie columnist David McCann has written this piece for Slugger: Well here we go again; another 12th July is marred by scenes of sectarian violence as PSNI officers are wheeled off to A&E injured. What were the police officers doing to provoke such an angry response I hear you ask? Well, quite simply they were enforcing a ruling by the Parades Commission that banned marchers from passing a controversial flash point in North Belfast. For many Loyalists the decision …

2013 contingency plan: let’s get all Belfast lodges to go to #Ardoyne

John Ó Néill on July 11, 2013, 10:23 am

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The Irish News is reporting that the Orange Order may put a contingency plan in place that would see all lodges in Belfast take a return route that takes them to the restricted section at Ardoyne (via paywall). According to the Irish News: It is believed they [the Orange Order] are considering asking Orangemen to march home from the field along with the three north Belfast lodges banned from walking the Crumlin Road. With perhaps little sense of irony the Grand Lodge …

Sinn Féin Minister hit by PSNI jeep following Tour of the North

John Ó Néill on June 22, 2013, 12:00 am

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According to reports on twitter, Sinn Féin Minister Carál Ní Chuilín was taken to hospital after being hit by a jeep at Carrickhill following the Tour of the North parade on Friday night. Gerry Kelly was also carried on the bonnet of a PSNI jeep. Gerry Adams has given some details: Caral released from hospital.Torn ligaments.Spoke 2 her.She was hit by PSNI jeep.Gerry K carried 50 yds on bonnet of jeep.Area now quiet. — Gerry Adams (@GerryAdamsSF) June 21, 2013 …

Scotland – will the Orange Order save the Union?

Dewi on April 23, 2013, 8:29 pm

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From the Herald comes the news that the Orange Order are mobilising for a “No” vote in the September 2014 referendum on Scottish Independence: THE Orange Order has begun the mobilisation of its members across Scotland as part of its campaign against independence. It has applied to join community councils and is involved in a series of roadshows across greater Glasgow, where it plans to lobby councillors on how it can get involved in the No bid. Similar events have …

Respect?

John Ó Néill on October 1, 2012, 10:05 am

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[click here if image doesn’t show] From today’s Irish News (h/t to @Short_Strand). Doesn’t really need much more comment. Sorry to rain on anyone’s parade, but you know what us Fenian bastards are like. At least in the case of the bandsman urinating on the church gates, the Grand Secretary of the Orange Order was quick out of the blocks this morning to the BBC: Mr Nelson said the incident was “outrageous and unacceptable”. He apologised unreservedly to the priest and parishioners of …

Franchising Ulster Scots in Scotland?

Mick Fealty on September 26, 2012, 10:04 am

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There’s a remarkable likeness between David Hume’s call for Ulster Scots to have a vote in the upcoming Scottish referendum and Sinn Fein’s standing call to extend the southern franchise to Northern Ireland’s elective Irish citizens. And they have even less chance of succeeding for more or less the same reasons. It would be seen as a rather disingenuous means of ‘packing’ the electorate in both place. Having said which, the question of who might constitute this electorate is fuzzy. …

Orange Order: No one will have veto over our Ulster Covenant parade

John Ó Néill on September 21, 2012, 11:30 am

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“No one will have a veto over our Ulster Covenant parade”, says Mervyn Gibson, county grand chaplain of the Orange Order in Belfast (as reported in the Tele): Mr Gibson said that the organisation had consulted with clergy and parishioners from St Patrick’s but that it did not feel compelled to consult with residents regarding the parade. “The reason we are not speaking to residents at this stage is that the issue was respect for St Patrick’s Church,” he added. “That was …

Viewing platform, Orange Hall, Clifton St

John Ó Néill on September 3, 2012, 4:34 pm

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The above photo is taken from the New Lodge Facebook page galleries which includes a photo gallery of the build-up to yesterdays Republican Network for Unity’s Henry Joy McCracken commemoration at the cemetery in Henry Place. Whilst the RNU event had been processed via an application to the Parades Commission (and not classified as sensitive), the loyalist protest that developed outside the Orange Orders Clifton Street building was not. The gallery includes some shots of the crowd beginning to gather outside …

DUP proposal to grant freedom of Lisburn to the Orange Order

Alan Meban (Alan in Belfast) on August 28, 2012, 9:32 pm

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At tonight’s monthly meeting of Lisburn City Council, Alderman Givan (DUP) proposed that the contribution of the Orange Order throughout Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland be recognised by conveying the Freedom of Lisburn on the organisation. [I recorded a quick interview with Paul Givan after the council meeting ended.] The freedom of the city is usually only given once per council term. Blind water skier Janet Gray, cardiologist Frank Pantridge (who pioneered the portable defibrillator), Olympic gold medallist …

What’s eating Ardoyne: Slugger’s first public Google+ discussion

Mick Fealty on July 18, 2012, 10:22 am

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As luck would have it, Slugger was down for a few hours yesterday, just as we were recording our first Google Plus Hangout on Air over lunch time… A second blow was not getting Chris Donnelly in to the discussion (tech hitches meant he couldn’t get in on time), so as a result there’s an important Republican perspective missing from this discussion… One of the technical hitches that occurred during the recording is that because one of the silent participants …

Slugger online debate: What’s eating Ardoyne (take two)…

Mick Fealty on July 16, 2012, 4:51 pm

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This is partly a reminder of tomorrow’s lunch time discussion, and partly an attempt to reset the thread that from the first comment actually went on to discuss a video taken outside St Patrick’s church in Donegall Street where (depending on who’s version of the truth you choose) a marching band chose play an old American classic, or The Famine Song. Either way, the video demonstrates just how intense the feelings are around this time of year (the ‘who’ of …