As it happens, I am of the belief that VE day parades and their like should not be celebrated the way they are.

Remembering the war dead should be a shared experience.

The Idea that we should march up and down for ever reminding the world that we beat the Germans and the Japs is outdated and misses the point.

The Orange marches are insulting and hurtful to Northern Irish Catholics as they are inextricably linked to the repression and subjugation of Catholics by Protestants in the North and they are inextricably linked to violence and humilation.

In this way they are comparable to the words Nigger and Paki, because those words were grown in the manure of racial violence and humiliation.

Violence is never justified, but Catholic anger at the Marches is understandable.

The orange orders may not have the power they used to have but they are founded of the same substance as they always were.

Trying to pass the marches off as anything less than a statement of seperateness is just plain denial.

The mentality is best summed up by a story my Dad once told me about a sea voyage he took to South Africa, during which there was a knock on his door.

Upon opening it, he found himself confronted with a Northern Irish Protestant, who had scoured the names of all the passengers on board, and found an Irish surname amongst them.

He then located my Dads cabin, knocked on the door and announced:

"I just wanted you to know - we're different!"

And that is what the Orange marches symbolize ...

'... we aren't like you, and don't for one second presume to believe you are like us.'


Some people will ignore this, but some will find it very upsetting, whilst others still will use it as an excuse to commit violent crime, with the circle comleting as the Orange men say to themselves

"you see - they're savages - not like us"

And round and round it goes.


Oh yes - and guess what - Keith A doesn't see what the fuss is all about.