Martin and the Orange Order

Recently I read a piece in the Belfast Telegraph where Martin Magennis called on the Orange Order to stop parading through Catholic areas. The Orange in response said it was their intention to make their parades family friendly outings and that Martin’s comments were unhelpful.

And so this dreary old argument goes on and on into the 21st century and the Telegraph is still making a story out of it. Churchill wrote about the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone rising from the deluge and Churchill is disgusted that the integrity of the quarrel is still maintained in spite of the cataclysm that has swept the world.

More recently I heard a report on the radio of a man travelling abroad who was asked
“ Where are you from?”
“ Ireland”
“ North or South?”
“ North”
“ Ah! You’re a protestant”
The ancient quarrel is no longer just dreary it is now a sick joke internationally. It is true to say sectarianism is the mental sickness of the Irish.

But is there no way out of all of that? Federal Unionism-Early Sinn maintains sincerely that there is. In that analysis the nature of this Ancient dispute is bound up with the U.K. Constitution which now needs reform in The National Government of Ireland Act which in turn will transform the United Kingdom of Great Britain and N. Ireland into the Federal Kingdom of the Sovereign Nation of Ireland and Great Britain or vice versa. If the National Government of Ireland Act were in place in the whole of Ireland then the Orange Order could parade up the Falls, into the Bogside and Crossmaglen but also they could parade down O’ Connell Street in Dublin, in Cork and in Galway and in Times Square on St Patrick’s Day displaying the picture of the Queen on a banner and flying not the Union Jack but the Federal Kingdom symbol –the Royal Flag of Ireland. An impossibility you might exclaim! Not at all. With the National Government of Ireland Act all things are possible and nothing is impossible, see the novel –THE WAY IRELAND OUGHT TO BE—Article Ten page 231 published by Authorhouse


Michael Gillespie Federal Unionist-Early Sinn Fein