AN OPEN LETTER TO MY ORANGE NEIGHBOURS
A Chairde,
Now that the British Secretary of State - recently landed among us – has banned the Portadown Lodge march on Garvaghy Road all of us should take time for a quiet reflection. Time also to be thankful that the stand-off was peaceful.
You and the people of Garvaghy Road deserve credit for that.
All thinking people want to see our society moving beyond the sectarian hatred that has cursed us for so long.
Division in our country was created and is exploited to keep us apart. This is our home place. Your homeland as well as mine. The land of the Orange and the Green and many others as well.
We have a deeply toxic past and a troubled present. But we have the opportunity to build a peaceful shared future.
Many of us disagree with aspects of what the loyal orders believe in and they disagree with us. But there is no harm in that if we can respect and tolerate our differences.
We recognise that you are an integral part of the culture and heritage of some of our Protestant and unionist fellow citizens. And an important dimension of the deep well of our wider history. And our future on this island.
2,507 notified parades took place this year up to March 2026. Only 137 had restrictions imposed on them and 51 of these were connected to weekly parades in Portadown relating to Drumcree.
That means that the vast majority of Orange and Loyal Order parades - 2,370 - took place without any controversy or issue.
The Outdoor Relief Riots
Following the Wall Street crash in 1929 and the economic crisis it created unemployment across the North stood at approximately 40%, with nationalist areas especially hard hit because of decades of discrimination. Life was hard for working people, including working class Protestants. Poverty was endemic. A survey conducted in the 1930s concluded that 36% of the population was in absolute poverty. That meant they had little food, clothing or fuel to sustain health. Belfast children from unemployed families were on average two to three inches shorter and ten pounds slighter than those in middle class areas.
The welfare scheme at that time was called ‘Outdoor Relief.’ To qualify an unemployed person had to work on public employment schemes, paving roads, digging up roads, laying pipes, digging ditches and so on. Those unable to carry out this physical work were often reduced to starvation. The scheme was administered for the Stormont regime by 27 local Board of Guardians whose relief rate was half that of similar schemes in Britain.
Michael Farrell in his exceptional book ‘The Orange State’ records how; “Single men who got no work, single girls, widows and orphans had either to live off their relations or to go into the workhouse.”
Save Moore Street – Buy the Terrace!
The Moore St. Preservation Trust is holding a rally on Saturday, November 7th, at 1 p.m. to support the campaign to protect one of the most important sites in Ireland’s history. Moore Street is where the leaders of the 1916 Easter Rising met for the last time following the retreat from the burning GPO.
The Moore St. Preservation Trust, the families of the Signatories to the Proclamation and others have opposed plans by a British developer Hammerson to destroy much of this Battlefield site.
I would urge readers to join the Moore St. Preservation Trust on November 7 in demanding that the Irish Government take Moore Street into public ownership and secure, protect and build a 1916 Historical Cultural Quarter for future generations.
There will be music, street theatre and much more as we stand together for Moore Street. Join us to demand action, protect our history and secure Moore Street’s future.
