THE recurring crisis around the annual Drumcree march as the Orange Order attempts to force its parade down the nationalist Garvaghy Road looms again as we face into another loyalist marching season.

A foretaste of what could happen in early July was seen with the intense conflict between Garvaghy nationalists and the British Crown Forces on Saturday, May 26 after a Junior Orange Order parade was forced down a stretch of the nationalist area against the wishes of the local people.

Following serious intimidation by the British paras and the RUC earlier in the day serious rioting ensued between 150 nationalist residents and more than 200 British colonial policemen (RUC). Petrol bombs, acid bombs, bricks, bottles and paving stones were hurled at the RUC who fired more than 15 plastic bullets, injuring 18 civilians. Hand-to-hand fighting between the residents and the RUC resulted in the British policemen leaving the Garvaghy Road under a hail missiles. Fifth-seven RUC officers were injured.

Residents complained of a day of siege and sectarian intimidation from the British paras, beginning at 6.30am on the day, which resulted 12 hours later in a full-scale riot.

This was a repeat of the past two years as the British Crown Forces enabled the Orange Order to bully their way through a nationalist neighbourhood. Despite these incidents the British-appointed Parades Commission give permission once again for the junior parade to go ahead.

Signs are that Drumcree Mark & at the beginning of July will be another exercise in terror and harassment for the people of Garvaghy over several weeks. Added to this is the readiness of the Brits to fire deadly plastic bullets against nationalists in the Six Counties. It was instructive to see how race riots in Oldham, England on the same night resulted in no plastic bullets being fired. In fact, they have never been used in Britain.

It is chilling to realise that, as SAOIRSE reported last month, the British government is introducing a new, more lethal plastic bullet in the Six Counties on June 1. The likelihood of more severe brain injuries from the new plastic bullets was admitted in an official British report.

Meanwhile, David Trimble upped the ante on his opponents at the commencement of the Westminster election campaign with a piece of political gamesmanship, when he announced in Stormont that he would resign on July 1 as Stormont ‘First Minister’ if the Provisionals did not begin the process of ‘decommissioning Arms’.

The move caused most consternation to the DUP and the Provisionals. In reality the move is a smokescreen as the post of ‘First Minister’ is not filled until late July, giving him, the Provisionals and the British and 26 County Governments over six weeks to coble together an agreement, fuelling suspicion that the basic outline of an agreement was laid out by Tony Blair and Bertie Ahern before the talks were adjourned.

The effect of this is also to put the DUP on the political ‘backfoot’ allowing both wings of ‘Ulster Unionism’ to unite around a common manifesto whilst also increasing pressure on the Provisionals and highlighting their political impotence within the Stormont Assembly.

SAOIRSE reported in April 2001 that the essential decisions on a deal were taken at the Hillsborough meeting on March 8 last. SDLP acceptance of a reformed RUC would be followed some time later by Provisional acceptance.

The reality is that the annual attempts at subjugating nationalists on the Garvaghy Road by the supremacist Orange Order is a symptom of the failure of the Six-County State itself. This artificial entity was carved out of Ireland 81 years ago to give a local unionist majority control of the maximum amount of Irish territory.

The present attempts at reform produce only a series of recurring crises with neither peace nor stability.

The only hope of stability lies in the restructuring of government in all of Ireland through a four-province federation including a nine-county Ulster with maximum devolution of power, including policing, to local level. The English government would have no role in Ireland once the new arrangements were in place and working.

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