Tens of thousands of citizens walked the streets of Northern Ireland in the lashing rain yesterday to demand an end to sectarianism combined with the dissolution of paramilitary organisations. Upwards of 20,000 people turned out in Belfast in one of the largest rallies seen in the city centre. Some 6,000 marched in Derry. There were protests too in Omagh, Strabane, Enniskillen, Newry and Cookstown.
It matters not a whit that the estimates of the crowds vary for the different venues. What is important is that thousands of the ordinary people of Northern Ireland took the trouble to march on the streets on a wet Friday afternoon to say that they have had enough. The peace and the political settlement may be imperfect; but they want an end to murder and intimidation.
There was no ambiguity in the address made by Mr Peter Bunting, assistant general secretary of the Irish Congress of Trade Unions, to the biggest crowd at Belfast City Hall. The organisation of this rally did not specifically originate with the brutal murder last Saturday of postal worker, Daniel McColgan, he said.Arising from the murder of Gavin Brett - the Protestant shot outside a GAA club - and other murders during the past year, ICTU took a conscious decision to initiate a pro-active strategy designed to combat sectarianism in the community, centring on North Belfast.
There was a thousandfold response. The First Minister, Mr David Trimble, Deputy First Minister, Mr Mark Durkan, and Education Minister, Mr Martin McGuinness, joined representatives of all of the pro- agreement parties to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with postal workers and Catholic school teachers threatened by Loyalist paramilitaries. The chairman of the board of governors of Holy Cross Primary School, Fr Aidan Troy, witnessed strong condemnation of the attacks on Catholic and Protestant schoolchildren in North Belfast.
The Taoiseach, Mr Ahern, commended the ICTU's "signal role in combating sectarianism and violence". The First Minister, Mr Trimble, noted that thousands had come out to demonstrate where they stand. The mood of marches was best captured perhaps by the leader of the Alliance Party, Mr David Ford, who said that the massive rallies illustrated just how strongly ordinary men, women and children feel about the social cancer of sectarianism.
The civic community expressed its abhorrence and revulsion of sectarianism in society yesterday. The protests were peaceful. They send a powerful message all of the paramilitaries. The people, by referendum, decided to pursue the path of peace and politics and, despite the apparently insurmountable difficulties, they still want to reach that goal.