The disgraceful scenes in Derry and, to a lesser extent, at the Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast on Saturday must dismay and dishearten anyone who wishes to believe that the North has truly advanced towards normality over 30 years. Scores of people have been injured. Damage to property will run to millions of pounds. And hundreds of young people have been exposed to the addictive evil of mob violence. The only comforting element in these events is that nobody was killed.
It is difficult for outsiders to accept or appreciate the insistence of the various loyal institutions that they will march in locations where violence is virtually inevitable. It is reckless at best, and uncaring of the possible consequences to innocent people. The right to march must surely take second place to the right of other people not to be intimidated, or provoked or threatened. The organisers of loyal marches claim that they have no such intent and that they are merely expressing their culture and inheritance. No doubt, many of them genuinely feel this way. But in the traditions of Northern Ireland such marches have also signified a territorial claim, a show of dominance and a historical ascendancy.
Pity then, the Parades Commission which has to arbitrate between the claims of both communities. And pity the Royal Ulster Constabulary which has to enforce its decisions and then face the fury alternately of loyalists and nationalists. Before the weekend the RUC was warning of plans by extremists in Derry to orchestrate violence under the guise of "spontaneous" outbursts by local people. The stockpiling of petrolbombs, ball-bearings and miscellaneous ammunition confirms the accuracy of the police charges. What was witnessed on Saturday was a calculated attempt to make the decision of the Parades Commission unworkable and to make the community pay a price for allowing the Apprentice Boys to march through the city.
In a normal society, otherwise ordinary men would not spend their Saturdays dressed in comic-opera regalia, marching through the streets, commemorating the battles of 300 years ago - especially if their doing so was plainly a source of irritation to their neighbours. But given that they wish to do so, it is regrettable that some of those neighbours choose to respond with a tribal ferocity which reinforces the circular processes of hatred, confrontation and provocation. It is surely ironic that in the city where civil rights activists first drew the world's attention to the repression of the old Stormont state, nationalist intolerance now manifests itself in fury and violence as it did on Saturday.
History abounds with examples of the exploited becoming, in turn, the exploiters; of the persecuted becoming the persecutors. Thirty years ago, the world's sympathies were with the nationalist people of Northern Ireland as they struck out against the injustices of the society in which they lived. This weekend there will be many who feel that the wheel has come full circle and that the once-oppressed have learned only too well how to do as was once done to them. Sinn Fein's Mr Martin McGuinness has condemned the Derry violence while criticising the Parades Commission decision to allow the Apprentice Boys' march to go ahead. His condemnation of the violence must be welcomed and it is reported that Sinn Fein members sought to restrain those engaging in it. But Mr McGuinness would be the more applauded had he urged his constituents to accept the Commission's decision and to treat the parade with dignified indifference.