It's Time!

It's summertime, it's July, it's the marching season in Northern Ireland and Scotland, and that means it's time for...

a/ Hatred. Can there be any other word to describe the feelings which run high during an Orange or Hibernian parade? These guys hate each other with a fury and vengeance. They may hide it well, as each side says how tolerant they are, but we know the truth, don't we?

b/ Sectarian chanting. While the beautiful game of football in Glasgow is trying to come to terms with this issue in its stadia, and making slow but steady progress, we have the whole reason for our hatred for each other on full display. Brightly coloured bigotry on the march, and we wonder why we have a problem in Scotland?

c/ Intolerance is something we all say we are against, but is a foreign concept at all these Orange and Hibernian marches. This feeling even spills over into the Social Networking sites where each side wish harm, or even call for the deaths of the opposite sides, and think it's ok.

d/ Drunkenness in the streets and at the rally after the marches is commonplace, and in fact, to be expected. To give this an air of respectability, the organisers will have invited ministers and priests to the appropriate rally, in the hope that it will appear acceptable. Let's hope the ministers and priests don't get mixed up and go to the wrong march!

e/ Swaggering, usually topless male youths appear in the streets from nowhere. There is a distinctive style of swagger which goes along with these sectarian marches and rallies, by their supporters. Have you noticed how proud and cocky these little men look, almost as if to say, go on challenge me to a fight.

f/ Normal, decent people stay away from the areas of the marches, and especially the rallies. If you do go, you better be wearing the appropriate colours, or you are in danger of at least verbal abuse.

This is one time of the year I do not like, because there is a tendency for people to wonder which side you are on, and that is the crux of the problem. I will avoid like the plague, the places these people are marching, and that's from either persuasion. Sadly, religion plays a part, where both sides claim to have God on their side as they abuse each other's point of view. My views are plain and well known. Ban all sectarian marches, which only serve to feed on the bigoted in society, who are only looking for an excuse to 'parade' their normally hidden allegiance to a set of colours. The battles celebrated and hated, are old. Very old. Can we not let them die along with those who fought in them? Or do we continue to hide behind the old excuse of, it's only a way of keeping my religious tradition alive?

Just for the record, the original Ancient Order of Hibernian motto in 1565 was “Friendship, Unity, and True Christian Charity”. The belief system of the Orange Order, celebrating a battle in 1690 is, “To cultivate Christian character, promote brotherly love and fellowship.” (Both statements taken from their own documentation, and in defence of their own tradition.) Just one question, What went wrong????