Issue 135, Saoirse: Irish Freedom (July, 1998)

              uimh 135 july — iuil 1998 50p usa 1 drumcree 4 standoff nationalists will as we went to press the drumcree standoff was in its fifth day and the orange order and loyalists were steadily increasing their campaign of intimidation and pressure against the nationalist residents in portadown and throughout the six counties for the fourth year the british government looks set to back down in the face of orange threats as the tories did in 1995 1996 and tony blair and mo mowlam did even quicker in 1997 once again the consequences of british capitulation to orange thuggery will have to be paid by the nationalist communities they will be beaten up by british crown forces outside their own homes if they protest against the forcing of orange parades through their areas they will be imprisoned within their homes for lengthy periods to show them who is in charge the issues of the garvaghy road and all the other nationalist areas where orange parades are not welcome is one of power and control the orange order seeks to remind residents that their power extends into the garvaghy road the same build-up of pressure as july 1 2 approaches is evident as happened in 1996 when the six counties were brought to a standstill in four days and the major government caved in the ease with which orangemen are allowed travel into drurncree from all over the six counties shows the complicity of the british army and ruc in the standoff similarly the orangemen can man roadblocks intimidate motorists and prevent nationalists going to work or to the shops without interference from british policemen for several hours the orangemen are eventually pushed back however in the event of nationalist protests at yet another british capitulation to the orange card the kid gloves come off nationalists are baton-charged plastic bullets are aimed to kill them and armoured vehicles are driven at speed at crowds of people on the streets also similar to the 1996 standoff is the arrival of 1 800 extra british troops to a total of 18,000 with the intention of dealing with nationalist protests against the fourth climbdown by the british government the co-ordinated and synchronised attack on ten catholic churches on the night of july 1-2 shows that there is a guiding hand behind the loyalist protests mo mowlam is fooling nobody when she acts the innocent and seeks evidence of any loyalist death squad involvement the role of the constitutional nationalist parties sitting in stormont is worth examining the sdlp sought to convince the garvaghy residents to allow a token march through their area this was the 1995 compromise which resulted in ian paisley and david trimble hand-in-hand dancing triumphantly in the streets of portadown trimble won the uup leadership contest as a result of these antics seamus mallon the deputy minister at stormont was jostled and jeered by garvaghy residents after trying to sell them another such compromise on july 7 the provisionals proved themselves a throwback to their predecessors in the officials who insisted in april 1969 that they would put it up to the british crown forces to defend the nationalist population in july 1998 the provisionals are likewise telling nationalists to • loyalist riots in belfast's bring a permanent peace stay off the streets as the british army and ruc can deal with it the nationalists are paying the price of the sectarian state once again and all tony blair's talk of equality will be exposed if and when he backs down drumcree 1998 proves that it does not matter what rearrangements of british rule sandy row on july 6 — the stormont agreement cannot are put into place - be it sunningdale 1973 or the stormont agreement 1 998 - it is still not going to bring a permanent peace it is still a sectarian statelet built on a sectarian headcount and the orangemen know that the numbers always add up in their favour with orangemen winning once again in 1 998 they will draw the obvious conclusion that all they have to do is keep the squeeze on the nationalists and they will win more concessions this is the very rotten foundation on which the stormont agreement is built the sooner it collapses the better for all of us sldd jj&d i7q8commemoratiop acre dublin opp national museum saturday july 18 draid sean 6 bradaigh heuston bridge beside robert emmet pub