wfn.org | Negotiators Work Frantically to Prevent Aug. 12 Riots; Northern

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Ireland Seeks Quiet After Violence in July 
05-August-1996 
 
 
 
 
      NEGOTIATORS WORK FRANTICALLY TO PREVENT AUG. 12 RIOTS; 
       NORTHERN IRELAND SEEKS QUIET AFTER VIOLENCE IN JULY 
 
                          by Alexa Smith 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky.--Though some of the worst rioting Northern Ireland has seen 
in more than a decade has quieted, the fear and shock it evoked has not. 
 
     Such raw emotion has both unionist and nationalist negotiators working 
frantically in Derry to form an agreement that will defuse trouble before 
it can ignite there Aug. 12, when the Apprentice Boys of Derry hope to hold 
their traditional initiation inside the city's ancient walls and their 
annual march along its bulwarks. 
 
     The Apprentice Boys is a fraternal order based on the "no surrender" 
action of 13 apprentice boys in 1689 who slammed Derry's gates on the the 
army of English Catholic monarch King James II, even though the governor 
had intended to hand over the town.  The failure of the city to surrender 
-- despite a protracted seige -- went down in history as a powerful symbol 
of Protestant resistance during the 17th century's religious wars. 
 
     But though Derry's historic walls still stand, as always, on the West 
Bank of the River Foyle, they loom over a now overwhelmingly nationalist 
section of the city. 
 
     Last month rioting erupted in Belfast and Portadown when the Orange 
Order doggedly paraded to celebrate the Protestant victory of William of 
Orange at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690.   
 
     The violence swept across the province, including historically 
volatile Derry. 
 
     "There's a lot of fear we could be repeating what happened 27 years 
ago, [when riots set off 25 years of  The Troubles']," said the Rev. 
Maynard Cathcart of the Waterside Presbyterian Church on Derry's East Bank. 
"It was almost '69 again.  There's an air of despair almost. 
 
     "Everyone's very much on edge at this moment in time. ... They just 
dread history repeating itself." 
 
     That's one of the reasons the Presbyterian Church in Ireland (PCI) 
chose the middle of what is traditionally Ulster's marching season to issue 
a "Call to Compromise," warning that "tradition must never become a false 
God or be allowed to compromise the Gospel."  It urges Christians to give 
support to the wider community and to local church leadership to "encourage 
movement" toward "honourable compromise." 
 
     "If it comes to the point that tradition ... is an encumbrance to the 
faith, it should be reformed, if necessary," the Rev. Samuel Hutchinson, 
clerk of the General Assembly of the PCI, told the Presbyterian News 
Service about the new document, while acknowledging how deeply ingrained 
marching is to Ulster's two cultures.  "It's an absolutely basic part of 
our culture," he insisted -- as crucial as dancing is to African culture or 
singing to Welch tradition.  "It's the way Ulster people express 
themselves. 
 
     "If there's a protest, there are marches about it.  If there are 
celebrations, there are marches about it," Hutchinson said, stressing that 
the Presbyterian stance articulated in the call, however, demands 
responsibility to both the state and the Gospel. 
 
     "We read in Romans 13 and 1st Peter 2 ... that the properly 
constituted authorities of the state are to be obeyed.  Only under the most 
extreme circumstances can this obligation be refused," the document says, 
adding that now is not one of those times.  It goes on to sternly warn that 
those who "initiate actions in volatile situations cannot evade total 
responsibility for the consequences of what they begin." 
 
     The call summarizes Reformation thinking by insisting that tradition 
must "serve the purposes of the Gospel or the Kingdom of God.  When either 
is compromised by the demands of tradition, it is a Reformation principle 
that tradition must be modified or reformed. 
 
     "Failure to do so turns tradition into a false God." 
 
     But in Portadown -- and then in Belfast -- last month, just about all 
authority broke down when Protestants amassed over 10,000 Orangemen to 
march July 12 along a no-longer-used parade route that includes a once 
Protestant but now largely Catholic section of the Garvaghy Road.  A police 
decision to ban the march set off demonstrations in Protestant 
neighborhoods.  When police relented because it seemed impossible to hold 
back the crowd, protests ignited in Catholic neighborhoods:  The only topic 
more combustible in Ulster than culture is territory -- what ground 
actually belongs to what community. 
 
     The outcome was burned homes, wrecked shops, two dead, a brief 
emergency redeployment of battalions of British troops to Ulster and a 
temporary stop to multiparty talks on how to keep peace between Northern 
Ireland's pro-union majority and its determined nationalist minority, who 
want a unified Ireland. 
 
     "Everyone knew the Orangemen would not give in.  Everyone knew police 
would get caught in the middle.  Everyone knew violent scenes would 
transpire.  The script was written," said parish associate Nigel McCullough 
of First Presbyterian Church, an 800-family congregation in Portadown that 
has both Orangemen and local police sitting in its pews. 
 
     "But there's general disquiet, unbelief that things came back the way 
they did," said McCullough, insisting no one thought such massive violence 
would engulf the whole province.  "There's been a measure of relief that 
things didn't go further than they did.  There was real despair. ... 
 
     "Everyone feared it might push us over the brink," he said, holding 
out more hope for Derry since negotiations are already in process. 
 
     What pushed the Orangemen in July was a long-simmering frustration 
that too many cultural concessions are being made by Ulster's majority to 
pacify nationists, according to numerous sources in the Protestant 
community there.  For instance, the stretch of road in Portadown where the 
parade was banned used to be the stage for at least seven parades 10 years 
ago -- now there is one. "But even the most determined hard-liners never 
wanted [mass riots] to happen," said Hutchinson, who described the mood now 
among the average Ulsterman as chastened or subdued. 
 
     "There was real lack of foresight.  People did not realize how things 
would get out of hand," he said.  "In a sense, Drumcree [the Anglican 
church near Portadown, where the parade began] wasn't about parades at all. 
 ... 
 
     "But it may not have been the best place or the best time to make the 
point ... that the community had had enough."   
 
     Or as a West Bank Presbyterian pastor in Derry, the Rev. David 
Latimer, told the Presbyterian News Service: "Marches are just a part of 
our life here.  They shouldn't be a threat. 
 
     "The nationalists have their marching days.  The Protestants have 
their marching days. ... People need to learn why our traditions, our 
cultures are important to each side." 
 
     It goes back to Ulster's old problem of what constitutes civil and 
religious liberty.  "On both sides of the division people have very strong 
views," Cathcart told the Presbyterian News Service. "Each proclaims civil 
or religious liberty for 'us,' but not always for 'them.'"  
 
     What most rankles Ulster's religious community are those who use 
religious symbols to shroud purely political  -- or even lawless -- motives 
to manipulate feeling during already highly emotional cultural 
celebrations. 
 
     "Whenever tensions rise, there are those who want to make a point," 
Cathcart said, reporting that a 70-year-old widow who is a member of 
Waterside Church and whose home butts up against a nationalist community 
has been threatened that her house will be burned unless she leaves it. 
"The vast majority of people are willing to accommodate where everyone has 
equal rights. ... 
 
     "But," Cathcart said, "people just fear circumstances could overtake 
the efforts of the city fathers.  It only took one guy to upset Atlanta 
City a week ago." 
 
     But in the midst of it all, Latimer said, "Life just goes on, you 
know?  You can't pick peace off the shelf like a tin of beans off the 
cupboard.  There's a lot of hard work, tough negotiating, a lot of 
tolerance, understanding, patience and sympathy required for communities 
locked in conflict for a quarter of a century," he said, adding that both 
sides still need to learn acceptance of each other.  "How that will be 
achieved, only God knows. ... 
 
     "It's as big as that.  It's beyond individuals or groups.  George 
Mitchell [U.S. chair of multiparty talks] is a signficant guy, but he 
doesn't have a magic wand," Latimer said.  "It's a political problem with a 
religious solution." 

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