JFK

“The men who create power make an indispensable contribution to the nations greatness, but the men who question power make a contribution just as indispensable, especially when that questioning is disinterested, for they determine whether we use power or power uses us.”

Currently we live in an increasingly Orwellian, deliberately manufactured society that equates differing thought as dangerous, where individuality must be suppressed, where one orange man’s whims become an armed, enforceable edict. As Aristotle recognized millenniums ago: “it is more proper that law should govern than any one of the citizens.”  As we vote this month of November, let us reflect the goal of maintaining our democracy and our Constitutional system of law, of checks and balances in our votes[JO1] .

November Limerick, Spot On

God’s plan made a hopeful beginning. But man spoiled his chances by sinning.
We trust that the story Will end in God’s glory, But at present the other side’s winning.
– Written by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

Ain’t Irish

Pope Leo recently stated, “Human Dignity has no passport.” As an immigrant community, scorned historically by American society, the Irish American should be extra alert and sympathetic to the cruelty put in motion by the dTrump administration’s reign of terror exacted upon the immigrant community. The base cruelty, the venal brutality of President dTrump has unleashed certainly “ain’t Irish” and deserves our vocal and deafening denunciation.

“Raw Evil”

This is how Irish American Cardinal Timothy Dolan described Russian President Putin’s invasion of Ukraine. He further queried: How can this tyrant get away with this?

It has now been over 10 years since the Russian takeover of Crimea and soon it will be five years since the full invasion of Ukraine by Putin, and yet, without shame, President dTrump continues to throw a lifeline to his Pal Putin.

Recently dTrump started buying diesel fuel in a private deal negotiated by the two presidents, directly contrary to the new Lindsay Grahm law ratcheting up sanctions against Russia. President dTrump further suckles up to Putin by inviting him to the G20 Conference he is hosting at his golf club near Mared Lago in December.

This invite is a move to normalize the war criminal’s presence on the world stage. Meanwhile Pal Putin continues to murder innocent Ukrainian children and mysteriously surveys and maps Ireland’s underwater communication and energy pipelines in the Irish Sea. I doubt Putin is looking for an Irish holiday home to rent.

Garvaghy Road

The main roadway through a heavily nationalist republican community in the town of Portadown in County Armagh, Garvaghy Road is a stronghold of Unionism. The Orange Order, a sectarian organization celebrates the victory of King Billy (William of Orange as in William and Mary fame) over Catholic English King James, who had been chased off the throne by protestant Lords looking to rid England of the pesky Catholic Church and its faithful, also known as the “Glorious Revolution” in England.

William, Prince of Orange (hence “Orangemen”) defeated Catholic King James II in July of 1790 at the Battle of the Boyne, which allowed the protestant elites to crown him monarch with his wife Mary. Now to complicate matters, King Billy is both the nephew of King James and his son-in-law.

Billy, The Dutch Prince of Orange was brought over from The Netherlands to marry his protestant first cousin “Mary” who is also the daughter of King James II, as part of his overthrow (talk about Game of Thrones or Succession plot lines). So, for hundreds of years, the Orange Order march to celebrate their identity and ties to the English (well maybe Dutch and German) Monarch sitting in London.

Orange Order Marches

In Portadown, the Orange men (and only the men are allowed to march) march from the center of town to their church in the Drumcree neighborhood. Several routes could be taken, but the Orange Order prefers to march down the most Catholic and Nationalist street to show em who is who.

Or in more common parlance, to shove it up the Nationalist noses. Whenever authorities tried to reroute the parade, the Orange Order would threaten violence to assert their goal. Most notoriously, resulting in the murder of 21 Nationalists, including three young Nationalist children in 1997, shortly before the Good Friday Agreement (GFA) related to Garvaghy Road permit denial.

The GFA devolved the decision on permits from the English Secretary of State for Northern Ireland to a Parades Commission. Thousands of these Orange parades are held throughout the North of Ireland each year. Since 1998, The Parades Commission has denied the Orange Orders demand to march down Garvaghy Road, straight through the heart of the Nationalist Community.

This year, based upon a procedural error by the Parades Commission, the Orange Order successfully challenged the routine denial of this particular permit and a Court granted a marching authorization to the Orange Order, creating one of the biggest crises and potentially destabilizing events since the signing of the GFA.

It has received much news coverage. Emotions on both sides have been intense. A march down Garvaghy Road could lead to the collapse of hundreds of the thousands of parade permits made as Nationalists Communities have worked with the Orange Order to find a mutual agreeable routes.

However, the forcing of this highly symbolic parade route could easily see the Nationalist Community pulling any sign-off on agreed upon routes throughout the Six Counties. The Orange Order is back on its heals a bit with their leader, Sir Jeffrey Donaldson, on his way to jail for an underage sexual assault conviction.

Loyalists still feeling abandoned by Brexit and the rising tide of Nationalism both North and South, let alone statements of the inevitability of Irish Unification by former Prime Minister Gordon Brown and even President dTrump. The various Loyalist parties are working to out crazy their competitors to who can be the Orangest of the Orange.

As we have learned from the Rupert Murdoch/Fox News business model, anger and hate sells. The loyalist fractions are maximizing their extremism and seized upon the Garvaghy Road procedural error permit. At print time, the Parade permit was revoked. Current court rulings have not addressed the underlying merits of the case which pits competing interests of the Loyalist and Nationalist communities. But a 28-year practice of choosing a less provocative marching route has been sabotaged by loyalist extremists in the hopes of collapsing the ongoing process of bringing the two communities and traditions to a point of more common ground. It is a dangerous moment where the loyalists have no clear leadership and are seeing their position of privilege fading away. Thet are gasping for any energy they can.