Marching into an uncertain future

Tension Mounts as Unionists Split After March Decision

Tension is mounting in Northern Ireland as Protestants prepare for their traditional July 12th celebrations in the wake of the decision to cancel or reroute some of the planned parades.

Security forces came under attack in north Belfast late on Friday night, and members of an Army-police patrol were reported to have been injured as guns were fired. Security sources said the incident happened at Hillview Street in an area between Protestant and Catholic areas.

Unionist politicians and representatives of the Protestant Orange Order were in disarray after the decision of local Orange Lodges to cancel or reroute five controversial parades through Catholic areas.

The Orangemen had announced in a series of statements that they would not march through potential flashpoints, to "protect the safety of our people".

Ian Paisley calls it "surrender"

Paisley: "It's getting worse and worse" for the Unionist cause

But Joel Patton, of the "Spirit of Drumcree" group, said the leadership of the Orange Order was on the "road to surrender". He urged members of the order to ignore the cancellations and re-routings and turn out anyway.
"The only people who concede in this country are the Protestants and Loyalists. We have a thirty year history of conceding everything. There is a chasm between ordinary Orangemen, and their "so-called leaders", he said.

Patton: Call to march

Joel Patton interviewed on Newsnight

The County Grand Orange Lodge of Belfast said it "deplored" the fact that the district Orangemen were "forced to withdraw, in the best interests of our Province, from parading the Ormeau Road".

The Belfast Orangemen urged Unionist politicians to pull out of the multi-party talks in Stormont Castle on the future of Northern Ireland until the Government "deals once and for all with Roman Catholic republicanism and the oppressor of the British people of Ulster".

Rev Ian Pasley, the leader of the Democratic Unionists, welcomed the Belfast Orangemen's call to pull out of the Stormont talks, and said the Unionist parties should form a united front.

He likened the Orange Order statements to the policy of appeasement in the 1930s. He accused the Orange Lodges of "surrender" and said the situation was getting "worse and worse" for the Unionist cause.

Adams: A door has been opened

A real possibility of a durable solution to the marching problem

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, reacting to the news that the marches were being re-routed said that a door had been opened, and that there was a "real possibility" of a durable solution to the problem. He said that he appreciated the significance of the move, adding that he would leave no stone unturned in the search for peace.

Douglas Caldwell on the BBC's Newsnight defending the leadership's decision.

The leader of the Ulster Unionists, David Trimble, said he would give the concerns voiced by the Belfast Orange Lodge "serious thought", but insisted he would not be rushed.

David Irvine of the Progressive Unionist Party, which is closely allied to Protestant paramilitaries, said the sense of relief in the province was "almost palpable".

This feeling was shared by the governments in London and Dublin, and many nationalist politicians, who welcomed the decision not to march through Catholic areas.