What sort of message does kow-towing to the Orange Order send to voters in Northern Ireland? asks DAVID ADAMS
SIR REG Empey, leader of the Ulster Unionists, stopped short of condemning an Orange Order call for protests during the pope’s visit to Britain later this year, warning instead that “it puts the queen in a very difficult position”.
I fail to see how. It isn’t as though there is the remotest chance that mainland citizens of the UK are going to take a blind bit of notice of anything the Orange Order has to say. Indeed, other than to cringe with embarrassment every time it opens its barely articulate mouth for fear that outsiders may think that this outfit speaks for them, most unionists and Protestants in Northern Ireland take no heed of the inane ramblings of the Orange Order leadership, much less are guided by them.
As for the queen herself, far from this poisonous little interjection putting her in a difficult position, if it has come to her notice at all, which is extremely unlikely, she will doubtless have dismissed it for what it patently is: attempted mischief-making by a lunatic fringe on the outer extremes (in every sense) of her kingdom.
The only people who are forever being put in an awkward position by the antics of the unelected little cabal that leads the Orange Order are moderate unionist politicians like Sir Reg himself, who happen also to be members of that organisation. I have no doubt that Sir Reg, a decent man, was in a diplomatic way trying to encourage the Orange leadership to see sense. Yet, hard experience should have told him that he was wasting his time: common sense is uncommon to the point of being all but extinct in that quarter.
Sir Reg would have been much better employed reflecting on how he can square his own continued membership of the Orange Order with its scare- mongering opposition to every progressive move that unionism has ever tried to make – progressive moves behind which he himself has almost invariably been a major force.
During the negotiations that led to the Belfast Agreement, and at every important juncture since, the Orange leadership openly aligned itself with whatever section of unionism seemed most determined to stymie progress.
First it was the anti-agreement DUP and Bob McCartney’s UKUP who enjoyed its backing, until Ian Paisley suddenly morphed into the North Antrim equivalent of Martin Luther King, and McCartney got bored of politics and wandered off to find something better to occupy his time. Now Jim Allister carries the Orange imprimatur, as he attempts to steer unionism down yet another cul-de-sac.
This is not to say that all members of the Orange Order are narrow-minded throwbacks. They are not.
Nevertheless, it is certainly the case that every time someone of moderate outlook and with enough farsightedness to see beyond the tip of his nose gets anywhere near a position of influence, he is soon isolated and pushed aside. Rev Brian Kenneway is a prime example, but far from the only one.
Of course, the only reason those dug in at the top of the Orange Order have any political clout at all is because the unionist parties have chosen to give it to them.
Consulted with and deferred to at virtually every turn, the Orange leaders are forever seeking to maximise influence by playing the unionist parties off against one another. Given the attention they have had lavished upon them, it is hardly surprising they now believe they have an inherent right to be consulted and appeased before any political decision of import is taken.
The truth is that the Orange Order has no more right to be consulted and appeased on political matters than has the Mothers Union or the Knights of St Columbanus.
What sort of message does this constant kow-towing to the Orange Order send to Catholics and non-Orange-aligned Protestants in Northern Ireland? Who can unionist-minded Catholics, in particular, vote for when they cannot be sure whether it is to the Grand Lodge or to their constituents that unionist leaders feel ultimately accountable?
Its political representatives seem to have forgotten that unionism has nothing to do with religion (or shouldn’t have), but is merely a constitutional preference, and as such should be open to all, regardless of background. Yet while a religious fundamentalist organisation such as the Orange Order continues to wield inordinate influence over it, political unionism will remain a closed shop to large swathes of people.
If the Orange Order is determined to have a direct say in the politics of Northern Ireland, then let it put forward clearly-marked candidates of its own for election.
Speaking of which, it has emerged that a senior Orange Order member in England, Nick Baker, is to stand for the British National Party in the upcoming British general election. How very apt.
Now the organisation of which so many unionist representatives are a part is harbouring, without compunction, a modern-day proponent of the fascist ideology that their forebears (and mine) fought against and died opposing in the second World War.
Baker is yet another reason, as if there weren’t nearly enough, for unionist politicians to dump their Orange sashes.