The orangefest

[Ancutza]

Don't give me that De'V dancing at the crossroads bull. The St Patrick's day celebrations are a nightmare for the Gardai. Drunken disorder, violence and destruction on a level which easily surpasses Orangefest, but just because the destruction and violence is non sectarian i.e. completely mindless, we applaud ourselves at being a cut above our Northern brethren.

Drunken, mindless violence is a side issue to the parades, be they St Patricks Day parades or Orange Order parades. It's to be condemned in both instances but I think you miss my point. The St Patricks Day parade celebrates a non-sectarian patron saint and is all-inclusive (i.e everyone is welcome to the party of all religions and racial mixes). The marches by those bigots of the Orange Order are NOT in anyway inclusive, in fact quite the opposite. If you can't see that then shame on you.

 

[terrontress]

Drunken, mindless violence is a side issue to the parades, be they St Patricks Day parades or Orange Order parades. It's to be condemned in both instances but I think you miss my point. The St Patricks Day parade celebrates a non-sectarian patron saint and is all-inclusive (i.e everyone is welcome to the party of all religions and racial mixes). The marches by those bigots of the Orange Order are NOT in anyway inclusive, in fact quite the opposite. If you can't see that then shame on you.

The ethos of St. Patrick may be non denominational but I think the issue is been how the parade has been conducted in the past. Celtic tops, tricolours and cans of Harp. The position of many Unionists has been to stay away from this and celebrate St. Patrick in a different way. But make no mistake, the Orange Order are very keen on St. Patrick, Cuchullain and many other traditional Irish figures and symbols.

The Battle of the Boyne was a non-sectarian event also which, apparently, was supported by the Pope and was fought for freedoms of all Irish people.

The issue has been the behaviour of the Orange Order since then which was made all the worse as Catholics were treated as second class citizens by lawmakers and politicians, who were all members of the Order.

This two tier society no longer exists so I reckon they should be allowed to march and if they step out of line they should have their rights reviewed but let's not forget, it is not the Orange Order that came out of yesterday in a bad light, rather those who claimed to be protesting against them.

 

[Duke of Marmalade]

...If you can't see that then shame on you.

I'll accept that point about the difference between the objectives of the two parades per se. But I really thought your portrayal of St Patrck's day celebrations as happy happy communal bliss was naive smugness in the extreme.

And terrontress (whose post was excellent IMHO) has pointed out that the trouble was not instigated by the OO but by dissident republicans and was condemned even by Sinn Fein.