News

Orange rise to the bait in a predicable manner

Cartoonist Ian Knox who was a long-standing friend of artist Joe McWilliams
Cartoonist Ian Knox who was a long-standing friend of artist Joe McWilliams Cartoonist Ian Knox who was a long-standing friend of artist Joe McWilliams

Irish News cartoonist Ian Knox, who was a long-standing friend of artist Joe McWilliams who died last month, gives his views on the controversy.

WHAT a shame Joe couldn't hang around long enough to enjoy the effect his great "Christian flautists" painting had on his chosen target. I can only look on with envy.

It's bizarre too that the Orange and TUV targets should rise in such a predictably brain-dead manner to the bait.

A little checking by those protectors of public space, who love to live in the past, would have shown that Orange marching bands have clearly documented links to the setting up of the first British section of the Ku Kux Klan back in Glasgow in the late 1930s or early 40s.

The culprit was notorious black shirt strike-breaker and drummer in the Bridgeton Purple and Crown Orange marching band, Billy Fullerton.

Fullerton, rather than William of Orange, was a frequent Twelfth visitor to Belfast during the July marching season was the "Billy" of the notorious Brigtown Boys who terrorised Catholics, Jews, trade unionists and any foreign nationals unfortunate to end up in the sectarian cauldron of 1930s Glasgow.