The fact that nothing happened, the opportunity never arose and they were kept in their box is a credit to the residents, nationalist leaders, the PSNI and – in fairness – the Orange Order & loyalism.
It also speaks to the fact that they have no support within nationalism and republicanism. They are a tiny cabal of opportunistic anti-GFA puritan fanatics who lurk in the shadows while sending wee lads out to do the dirty work and the sentence that follows.
As a collective they may be the single worst element of our society.
Loyalism is more or less reduced to gangland criminality and factional infighting that are found in every city in the world, just under the guise of paramilitaries as a cloak of legitimacy within those communities.
The far-right anti-immigrant bigots are largely ugly, angry morons who lack the intellectual capability to separate reality from social media propaganda.
The Orange Order are fundamentally flawed, with the original sin of being an explicitly sectarian organisation, but they’re an old boys’ club now that has long lost its power, if not its usefulness to bad actors. Let them bate away where they’re welcome and mind their manners where they’re not.
Republican dissidents have a groupthink psychopathy that allows them to believe they are entitled – via their incredibly narrow interpretation of Irish history and bagful of clichés and quotations – to murder other members of our society. Imagine being so utterly convinced of your righteousness that you believe killing strangers is honourable in this age where Catholics have equality and a democratic path to constitutional change.
Now, as Newton Emerson’s piece in the Irish News today points out, mainstream republicanism – and Martin McGuinness in particular – looked this problem in the eye and put it in its place years ago. Unionism has never done this convincingly and now is being led down a shitty path by the extreme voices on that side.
Allister, Bryson, et al may not have gotten their march down the road and won’t be throwing any petrol bombs, but they’re having a cracking few weeks of creating their culture war, sowing division and throwing a grenade into our society, which was always the big prize in this episode. The dissident threat just underlines how things could quickly escalate.
Mainstream unionism, civic and political, needs to get that mentality under control and put it in its place instead of whataboutry and constantly pointing the finger at SF, SDLP and Alliance. Otherwise they risk letting this grow, fester and drag us back despite the vast, vast majority wanting to get on with our neighbours and make life here better for everyone.
⏩Michael Glackin is an observer of events in North.
It also speaks to the fact that they have no support within nationalism and republicanism. They are a tiny cabal of opportunistic anti-GFA puritan fanatics who lurk in the shadows while sending wee lads out to do the dirty work and the sentence that follows.
As a collective they may be the single worst element of our society.
Loyalism is more or less reduced to gangland criminality and factional infighting that are found in every city in the world, just under the guise of paramilitaries as a cloak of legitimacy within those communities.
The far-right anti-immigrant bigots are largely ugly, angry morons who lack the intellectual capability to separate reality from social media propaganda.
The Orange Order are fundamentally flawed, with the original sin of being an explicitly sectarian organisation, but they’re an old boys’ club now that has long lost its power, if not its usefulness to bad actors. Let them bate away where they’re welcome and mind their manners where they’re not.
Republican dissidents have a groupthink psychopathy that allows them to believe they are entitled – via their incredibly narrow interpretation of Irish history and bagful of clichés and quotations – to murder other members of our society. Imagine being so utterly convinced of your righteousness that you believe killing strangers is honourable in this age where Catholics have equality and a democratic path to constitutional change.
Now, as Newton Emerson’s piece in the Irish News today points out, mainstream republicanism – and Martin McGuinness in particular – looked this problem in the eye and put it in its place years ago. Unionism has never done this convincingly and now is being led down a shitty path by the extreme voices on that side.
Allister, Bryson, et al may not have gotten their march down the road and won’t be throwing any petrol bombs, but they’re having a cracking few weeks of creating their culture war, sowing division and throwing a grenade into our society, which was always the big prize in this episode. The dissident threat just underlines how things could quickly escalate.
Mainstream unionism, civic and political, needs to get that mentality under control and put it in its place instead of whataboutry and constantly pointing the finger at SF, SDLP and Alliance. Otherwise they risk letting this grow, fester and drag us back despite the vast, vast majority wanting to get on with our neighbours and make life here better for everyone.
⏩Michael Glackin is an observer of events in North.
No comments