Tomorrow is Drumcree Sunday, when once again the Orangemen will march and the Church of Ireland will squirm with embarrassment - but do little else. Patsy McGarry reports on a saga seemingly without end
In Greek mythology Sisyphus was condemned by the gods to roll a rock up a hill for eternity - only to watch it roll back down again, and then to repeat this futile exercise. In a 1942 essay The Myth of Sisyphus, Albert Camus gave the myth new life, seeing it as a metaphor for what in his view was the essential absurdity of the human condition.
One wonders what Camus would have made of Drumcree? Or whether those old Greek gods might not be exercised at seeing the Orangemen there walk down a hill just to walk back up again. As they have been doing every Sunday since July 1998. What an exquisite punishment? Those gods would surely be tempted to employ it as a latter-day punishment for errant mortals. Maybe they have?
What made Camus's essay so startling, however, was his conclusion that Sisyphus was happy in his absurdity. That he accepted his fate, was resigned to it, and got on with it, consciously and happily, so overcoming the absurdity. And it is wrong to conclude the Portadown Orangemen don't get a kick out of it.
All that affirmation. "Here we stand, we can do no other", says a banner on a hoarding at the Orange cafe on Drumcree hill, echoing those words of Martin Luther 485 years ago when he said: "I cannot and will not retract ... Here I stand, I can do no other. So help me God, Amen." He was responding to a summons to appear before the Diet of Worms to explain his posting of the 95 theses to the church door at Wittenburg on October 31st, 1517.
The Portadown Orangemen are "the burning torch for Protestantism", to quote from their "Orange Pages" website. There you will also find The Ballad of Drumcree, which celebrates their 1996 "victory" on the hill.
Twas the 7th of July, the year was 1996
When we set ourselves to march through old Drumcree
But soon we found our way was blocked by police with riot sticks
In this country of the pious and the free
Now it was our right to march that way, we've done for many years
And we swore that we would never compromise
And we faced them there five days and nights, hate ringing in our ears
But violence, fear and hate were our allies
Free men we have always been and free men we will stay
So stand you boys aside and let us through
We've marched in our tradition and it's always been our way
And we're free to do just what it tells us to
It concludes:
Meanwhile down at Stormont all our leaders sat and talked
They were trying to bring peace at any cost
But surely you can see my friend the reason that we walk
We don't want peace if our traditions will be lost
Well, victory was won that day, let there be no mistake
Though some would say the peace was jeopardised
Our land may be condemned to years of killing and of pain
But through them all we'll march with heads held high.
That ballad was written in 1997, in the "good old days" before the march was blocked at the foot of Drumcree hill. Still, the sentiment remains the same. "Violence, fear and hate" continue to be "allies" . They still "don't want peace if our traditions will be lost", and though their land "may be condemned to years of killing and of pain", their primary concern is to "march with heads held high." So they won't talk directly to the Garvaghy Road residents, the one route which might bring a resolution.
Meanwhile caught between this rolling rock and the hard place that remains the barricade at the foot of Drumcree hill is the Church of Ireland. It is fated once more to squirm with pained embarrassment in the world's sitting rooms as its Church of the Assumption at the summit of the hill bears witness again to its awesome helplessness before Drumcree. Faced with this situation for the eighth year in succession, it has become passive as stone. It bleats that it is caught in a trap.
The church's Primate, Archbishop Robin Eames, has even described Drumcree as his own personal Calvary. In a lengthy statement this week he details his many efforts this past year, as in other years, to bring about a resolution. He explained that "the Church of Ireland does not own the Orange Order nor the Orange Order own the Church of Ireland. I have recognised and accepted that there are many members of this church living in Northern Ireland who are sincerely loyal in their membership of both the Church of Ireland and the Orange Order and that they see no conflict in such joint allegiance."
He has met the Portadown lodge, "the Parades Commission, politicians, representatives of both the British and Irish governments, the spokesman for Northern Ireland of the Conservative party and the leaders of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition". He is " fully aware of the feelings of the nationalist community in Portadown".
He accepts fully "that the Church of Ireland parish of Drumcree cannot be isolated from the issue. The Church of Ireland has not walked away from this question. It has chosen to seek a solution which is fair, honourable and permanent through patient persuasion. It also recognises that this problem is at variance to the widespread reconciliation work the Church of Ireland is engaged."
And he recognises that " the rector and select vestry [at Drumcree] find themselves in a position few if any other churches of the reformed tradition would welcome". Given the tensions elsewhere in the North this summer, he appealed "earnestly for a peaceful expression of protest at Drumcee and urge on a basis not only of moral authority, but in the light of my own efforts to seek a solution, that there is a complete and absolute absence of violence".
Between the lines of that statement there escapes the steam of exasperation. And yet ...
In 1999 the Church of Ireland General Synod passed resolutions about flying the union flag from church steeples in July and about asking the Portadown Orangemen to make three pledges before an invitation would be extended to them to attend the Drumcree service. All were ignored by the rector and select vestry at Drumcree, without consequence.
The church argued that because of its tradition of dispersed authority there was nothing more it could do. Yet its House of Bishops decided against allowing its own powers to be extended so Archbishop Eames might be able to deal more directly with Drumcree.
Meanwhile, we have learned just how speedily and effectively the church can act against dissident clergy when it wants to, as we saw in the case of Dean Andrew Furlong earlier this year. And the great majority of the select vestry at Drumcree continue to be members of the Portadown District Loyal Orange Lodge.
Research by Dr Shirlow of the University of Ulster has established that the single most significant factor in the increased polarisation of the North's communities since the 1994 ceasefires was the celebrated Drumcree of 1996. That and Drumcrees since have polarised opinion and increased fear in both communities, he found. Then there are all the deaths believed to have been directly related to Drumcree. These are put at eight, all Catholics except Billy Wright.
If its handling of its various scandals have brought the institutional Catholic Church in Ireland into a greater disrepute than it has known since Emancipation, then Drumcree threatens the Church of Ireland with a not dissimilar fate.
There is Calvary and calvary, but is difficult not to avoid the conclusion that both churches have contributed handsomely to their current humiliations. Unlike Sisyphus, they have shown a distinct preference for the futile, when other, meaningful choices were available. But even Camus could not argue they are happy.