Opinion

Martin O'Brien: Orange Order must build on peaceful Twelfth and move forward

Martin O'Brien
Martin O'Brien Martin O'Brien

What lessons can we take from the quietest Twelfth of July in years?

How can we, as a society so deeply in need of healing and generosity of spirit, now move forward?

More particularly, how can our political leaderships build on the not so minor miracle of the past week?

Such questions come to mind as we reflect on a Twelfth when the sunny weather resonated with the general lack of tension rather than enhance the prospects for rioting and mayhem.

For make no mistake about it, after the horrors of recent years that can be viewed with a few clicks on the internet, peace in Ardoyne on the Twelfth, what Sinn Féin’s Gerry Kelly called “a huge change in atmosphere” is good and promising news and it must not be disregarded.

Neither should we downplay the significance of Orangemen marching past St Patrick’s Church, Donegall Street, Belfast showing respect for that sacred place, adhering to the determination of the Parades Commission.

Of course, all this did not come about by accident but by the indefatigable behind the scenes efforts of good people and stakeholders on all sides who have been working quietly and with determination month in, month out, year in, year out, patiently eroding the distrust and prejudice sufficiently to enable what most people – but not a senior Orange figure to whom I spoke - would regard as a positive outcome.

The less said about the details of such discreet and painstaking peace-making and the personalities involved the better but it is obvious that the completion of the return parade by Ligoniel lodges in October, the dismantling of the loyalist camp at Twaddell Avenue and related undertakings and understandings have been crucial in achieving compromises all round and a result that inspires hope for the future.

Alongside this, the Orange Order’s “charm offensive,” or if you prefer its evident new emphasis on self-respect, on smarter attire in Belfast where standards had dropped over the years, and its continued clampdown on alcohol misuse on the day, summed up in its “It’s about the Battle, not the Bottle” message launched last year, contributed to the best-behaved return march through south Belfast that I have seen.

The overall impression, judging from the PSNI assessment and media reports from throughout the region, on the Twelfth day, (leaving aside the quite appalling behaviour at some bonfires, including the racist banner about a Celtic footballer, and the burning of an effigy of our late Deputy First Minister and of Irish Tricolours on the Eleventh night ) the Orange Order is making a serious effort to live up to its recent public undertaking to stress “ Remembrance, Heritage, Tradition, Respect and Culture” on the day itself.

This is to be welcomed and if built on, could lead to the Twelfth being seen by open-hearted Catholics in a very different light.

However, we must not get carried away.

The senior Orangeman told me that that this year’s outcome in Belfast was not satisfactory from their point of view because their key grievance is the legislative teeth that empower the Parades Commission to make determinations that they see as oppressive; that nationalist residents had no need to protest in Belfast because their demands had been met and he pointed to the non-resolution of Drumcree.

Does it not occur to him that the parades legislation contributed to this tension-free Twelfth and far from threatening the legitimate orderly expression of Orange Protestant culture, could possibly pave the way for the Twelfth to be seen, in time, as a non-triumphalist festival by his Catholic neighbours?

Would that be a prize worth going for?

As the clock ticks down to the resumption of talks at Stormont there is a better climate right now than even a few weeks back for the necessary compromises that would enable an inclusive functioning government to be formed to get stuck into the issues around, for example, hospital waiting lists and schools’ budgets and provide a voice on Brexit in Brussels, where the leaders of Scotland and Wales were heard last week.

For Arlene Foster and Michelle O’Neill, the lesson of the quiet Twelfth is to re-double their efforts in a spirit of compromise, mutual respect and equality; to never forget how far we have come.

Arlene and Michelle could get in the right frame of mind by appending to their respective desks a quote from Gilbert and Sullivan’s The Gondoliers that Prime Minister Harold Macmillan hung in his office in Downing Street all of 60 years ago: “Quiet, calm deliberation disentangles every knot."