Someday the site of fellas parading down the street with sashes and bowler hats and bands will be as controversial and divisive as Morris Dancing is.

It will be a gift by one part ofthe community to the rest of it, like the Notting Hill Carnival, or the Durham Miners Gala.

But the nonsense about the Drumcree parade and the Croppies Lie Down message it's all about is holding back that day. And intended to do so.

The irony of it all is that this kind of carrying on by people who claim to support the Union does more to make people in England want to sever all connections with Northern Ireland than the IRA and the bombing ever did. "I don't know why we don't just leave them to sort it out among themselves" is almost certainly the overhwhelming majority opinion now.