Opinion

Allison Morris: Those who say 'nothing has changed' should check the news archives

Police come under attack from petrol bombers in Ardoyne.
Police come under attack from petrol bombers in Ardoyne. Police come under attack from petrol bombers in Ardoyne.

In years gone by managing the marching season during a pandemic would have filled even the most confident chief constable with dread.

And yet here we are after a quiet, mainly well ordered Twelfth.

That does not mean that we've solved the issue of sectarianism or societal conflict, far from it, but we've come a long way in just a few short years.

Since 2001, I worked every single July while friends and family took off on the yearly exodus to Donegal.

Trouble would often start during the Tour of the North in June and last until the last Saturday demonstration in August. Long, hot summers of discontent.

Violence that involved hundreds of police in full riot gear, water cannon on the streets and plastic baton rounds. Bricks, bottles, petrol bombs, garden walls, roof slates, iron bolts, anything and everything became a weapon.

Communities penned into their homes, young people caught up in violence that would result in many of them receiving criminal records that followed them into adult life.

As a journalist covering the violence it was at times frightening, dangerous and filled us all full of despair at what kind of society we were living and working in. I remember vividly the thump of plastic bullets being fired, the smell of burning petrol.

I have a scar on my lip from being hit with a piece of slate during a three day riot in north Belfast in the summer of 2009 or was it 2010?

They all blur into one after a while.

Press Association journalist Rebecca Black posted a picture on Facebook this week of the infamous year former actor turned documentary maker Ross Kemp showed up.

The TV 'hardman' had bodyguards to protect him from the chaos, the rest of us didn't.

A flying ladder left by a photographer forced to flee was thrown in our direction, it whizzed past my ear before hitting UTV's Deborah McAleese on the head - she continued on regardless.

There is a not a single front line reporter doesn't have a story or a scar to show for those mad times.

They may have been a good grounding for anyone seeking to be a reporter but there were easier ways to earn a living.

The new crop of media think social media is an abusive audience, they haven't stood as an Irish News journalist at the front line of a loyalist blockade - now that was a tough crowd.

The security barriers, the riot cops, the protesters and the journalists, we all moved around the Whiterock, Short Strand, Ardoyne, Woodvale, Donegall Street.

Months of violence, every summer, as predictable as the bad weather.

But behind the pictures, words and film footage were people's lives.

Homes boarded up, not a single window letting in natural light, children afraid to sleep at night, parents on antidepressants just to get through each day.

Drumcree, Holy Cross, the Quinn children.

Terrible times that left a mark on communities and caused generational trauma allowed to steal too many people's future.

The start of the road to change came with the Royal Black Institution who in 2012 issued an apology to the clergy and parishioners of St Patrick's Church for any offence caused. The parish administrator, Father Michael Sheehan, welcomed the apology and "the sincere Christian spirit behind it".

The background to that apology is probably not widely known. At the time, Austin Hunter, a former senior journalist who held a series of high profile roles during the Troubles, was doing some informal public relations for the Royal Black.

I stood beside him that day chatting, a man full of information, knowledge and advice, a conversation with Austin, sadly no longer with us, was never wasted.

And then the bands and supporters started to flow past the church, the atmosphere turned toxic, the abuse thrown at the priest was sexually explicit, the behaviour of followers inexcusable.

The next day when the institution apologised, it was unprecedented and immediately took all toxicity out of that parade and allowed for future relationship building. Proof that one decent man can make a difference.

Sectarianism still exists, we know that from the shocking displays on bonfires this year mocking grieving families.

From the brutal sectarian attack on an innocent young Protestant teenager in north Belfast, saved only by the actions of a Good Samaritan who took him to safety.

But Twitter outrage is not reflective of the real world, those who say nothing has changed should take a look through the Irish News archives to see just how far we've progressed.

We are in a much better place than we were, there is no such thing as a lost cause and we must always keep moving forward.