There was a general – although in some quarters qualified – welcome Friday for a statement by the leaders of the Royal Black Institution apologising “for any offence” caused during a parade by the loyal order outside St Patrick’s Catholic Church on Donegall Street last Saturday week.
Bands played music in contravention of a Parades Commission ruling while passing the church.
The response from the administrator of the church welcoming the apology also raised hopes that a parade of 20,000 Orangemen and 100 bands from Belfast City Hall to a huge rally six miles away on the grounds of Stormont might pass off peacefully on Saturday, September 29th.
There is still considerable concern around the parade which marks the centenary of the signing of the anti-Home Rule Ulster Covenant but the apology by the Royal Black Institution – the first such apology to a Catholic church from a loyal order, according to expert commentators – has helped to lower the sectarian temperature.
“Through its stand for the Reformed Christian Faith, the Royal Black Institution has doctrinal differences with the Roman Catholic Church but we want to make it absolutely clear that the anger of the Royal Black Institution is not directed at St Patrick’s Church,” the organisation said in a statement issued late on Wednesday night.
“We apologise for any offence to the clergy and parishioners of St Patrick’s Church,” added the statement by Millar Farr, sovereign grand master of the institution and William Scott, its grand registrar.
In response, Fr Michael Sheehan of St Patrick’s Church said, “I welcome this positive development and the sincere Christian spirit behind it.”
The apology also followed a meeting of north Belfast politicians organised on Wednesday evening by First Minister Peter Robinson and the Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness.
Orange Order representatives privately met Mr Robinson.
Police had bluntly warned that unless politicians stopped “posturing” and took action to cool tensions that somebody “will be killed” in the run-up to the parade on September 29th.
That warning was issued by PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Will Kerr following a number of nights of serious rioting at Carlisle Circus in north Belfast that injured over 60 police officers – rioting that was partly triggered by the current tensions.
The Royal Black Institution said that its “sense of injustice” was “focused on the Parades Commission and its irrational and often irresponsible determinations”.
It added: “We have always had good lines of communication with the Roman Catholic Church and we would intend to continue to maintain and consolidate these away from the public gaze.”
North Belfast Sinn Féin Assembly Member Gerry Kelly said it was not a “full” apology but that the institution’s statement was “a step in the right direction”.
Local SDLP MLA Alban Maginness said the statement was a “game changer” which had transformed a worrying situation.
Local DUP MLA Nelson McCausland said the statement was a “sign of maturity” while the Ulster Unionist Party leader Mike Nesbitt said it was a generous statement which had created “space for politicians to offer hope of something better”.
Meanwhile, the PSNI Chief Constable Matt Baggott held talks with Mr Robinson and Mr McGuinness and Minister of Justice David Ford at Stormont yesterday about the rioting and the security concerns around the end-of-month Orange parade.
Also present were SDLP and UUP Ministers Alex Attwood and Danny Kennedy.
Mr Baggott also briefed members of the policing board.
He told the board it was fortunate nobody was seriously injured during the trouble in north Belfast while, as a result of the latest developments, expressing some “hope and optimism” that there would be a resolution to the current parading difficulties.
‘The Famine Song’ lyrics
THE ISSUE that prompted the controversy goes back to July 12th, when a loyalist band played an allegedly sectarian tune outside St Patrick’s Catholic Church in Belfast city centre, during an Orange Order parade.
The Famine Song, judged by a Scottish court to be racist, is played to the tune of the Beach Boys Sloop John B.
The playing of the tune prompted the Parades Commission to ban the band from marching past the church on Saturday week during the Royal Black Institution parade.
Bands had also been instructed not to play music passing the church.
Both instructions were flagrantly broken.
To add to the controversy, unionist politicians including First Minister Peter Robinson ahead of Saturday week’s march deplored the Parades Commission’s rulings.
Nationalist politicians and Catholic Church representatives claimed the breaches were deliberate sectarian acts, while some unionist politicians and loyal order representatives said ignoring the commission’s rulings was legitimate “civil disobedience”.
I often wonder where they
would have been
If we hadn’t have taken them in
Fed them and washed them
Thousands in Glasgow alone
From Ireland they came
Brought us nothing but trouble
and shame
Well the famine is over
Why don’t they go home?
Now Athenry Mike was a thief
And Large John he was fully
briefed
And that wee traitor from
Castlemilk
Turned his back on his own
They’ve all their Papists in
Rome
They have U2 and Bono
Well the famine is over, Why
don’t they go home?
Now they raped and fondled
their kids
That’s what those perverts
from the dark side did
And they swept it under the
carpet
and Large John he hid
Their evils seeds have been
sown
Cause they’re not of our own
Well the famine is over
Why don’t you go home?
Now Timmy don’t take it from
me
Cause if you know your history
You’ve persecuted thousands of
people
In Ireland alone
You turned on the lights
Fuelled U boats by night
That’s how you repay us
Its time to go home.