MY father wore his Sash with pride. On July 12 and 13 and on the last Saturday in August he walked with pride. And I do mean ‘walked.’ There was no triumphalist swagger, let alone the whistling or singing of any tune which would have offended non-Orange or Protestants.
He took pride in his appearance, too, from the top of his dusted bowler hat to black shoes so shiny that you could see half of the lodges and bands coming behind him. Even if there was a blazing sun beating down on him he would never have loosened his tie or removed his jacket or hat.
He never regarded the Orange or Black as manifestations of ‘croppies lie down’ unionism, but nor did he hide from the fact that the Battle of the Boyne changed the course of British/Irish history and helped secure the foundations of our modern liberty, parliamentary supremacy and constitutional monarchy. He believed that was worth remembering and worth celebrating.
He was equally proud of his Protestantism: not as some sort of counterblast to Roman Catholicism, but because he really did believe in the necessity of grace through faith in Christ. He read the Bible deeply, not because he wanted to refute or belittle the beliefs of others, but because he wanted to build and nurture his one-to-one relationship with the Christ who mattered so much to him.
The other great passion of his life was unionism. He was a member of the Unionist Party for decades, serving at many levels within the party and a close friend and confidante of some of its most senior government figures.
But like his Orangeism and Presbyterianism he didn’t take the view that unionism should ever be seen (or allow itself to be seen) as anti-Catholic. He was an advocate of pan-UK unionism and of constantly promoting the collective benefits of a United Kingdom. He never believed (and urged me never to believe) that most Roman Catholics were intrinsically anti-Union and nor did he believe that they were ‘all closet supporters of the IRA’.
That was my dad. A plain speaking, much respected man who took pride in his Orangeism, Protestantism and unionism: not as manifestations of bigotry, supremacy or oppression, but because they were a cause, creed and culture which fashioned and shaped his outlook on life.
As far back as the autumn of 1968 (when I was 13 and becoming aware of the political circumstances around me) I remember him telling me that the bond between Northern Ireland and Great Britain would never be secure until there was clear evidence that increasing numbers of what he described as ‘supposed nationalists’ were comfortable with it. And that, he argued, would require the Unionist Party to shift from its fixed positions and become more of a genuinely pro-Union party and less of a Protestants only pro-Union party.
He was genuinely upset – and I was about 15 at the time – when I told him that I was, at best, an agnostic; but more likely an atheist. Upset, because he saw it as a failure on his part, but also upset because it meant I would never walk beside him on July 12. Yet he also told me that he was worried about changing attitudes in the Orange (this was 1970/71) and an influx of young men who, he believed, were joining for purely sectarian reasons.
I think there was a sort of inevitability to these internal changes. Northern Ireland was a difficult and dangerous place in the late 1960s, early 70s and the Orange Order was somewhere where unionists/Protestants could gather together and gain personal and psychological strength from each other.
The ‘marching season,’ be it the July 12 and 13 set pieces, or the hundreds of other smaller parades across the province, was a sign to both themselves and others that unionism and Protestantism were not for bowing down or bowing out.
And it’s probably worth noting that the Orange acted as a safety valve for tens of thousands, who might otherwise have drifted into a bloodier and more brutal response to the activities of the IRA and the vacillation of successive British governments.
The ongoing running battle between the loyal orders and the Parades Commission worries me — and it would have worried my Dad, too. It’s all very well to say that there are only a few contentious parades, yet those few parades garner enormous publicity and analysis, most of which is very negative from the Orange/unionist/Protestant perspective.
I suspect that if you conducted an opinion poll amongst the pro-Union community (and maybe even amongst those who belong to the Orange or Black) an awful lot of people would find it hard to answer key questions like: Why the need to parade in particular areas? How does it express their culture or unionism? Why don’t they explain themselves better to their supporters, potential supporters and detractors?
I’m not really sure if the Orange/Black are primarily religious/historical/cultural/political organisations: so I’m also not sure what their parades and demonstrations are meant to tell me. And if I’m not sure then you can bet your bottom dollar that there are tens of thousands of others in the pro-Union community who are not sure, either. That being the case, they have neither understanding nor sympathy when they see footage of what seems to be a band going out of its way to cause offence.
I don’t like the Parades Commission. The underlying absurdity is that it invites people to come up with reasons to be offended and then agrees with them! ‘Concerns’ seem to be manufactured to suit the occasion and the Parades Commission buys into it and allows the ‘concerns’ to become part of a much wider republican agenda. It’s clearly being manipulated by organisations which have no real interest in the local communities they have hi-jacked for their own ends.
Yet the fact remains that the Parades Commission is the only show in town: and it’s hard to avoid the conclusion that the loyal orders should either talk to them or produce a political/propaganda strategy which outflanks them altogether. At the moment they are in a limbo land: neither talking nor producing an alternative and all the while losing the propaganda advantage.
This isn’t about a supposed moral high ground. It’s about the loyal orders explaining to the rest of us what motivates them and why their activities and beliefs are worth preserving and promoting. I think it’s what my dad would have wanted them to do. Let their pride in themselves become part of a wider pride.
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