|
Frances
McAuley is a lively and articulate woman. She arrived
for the interview with The Blanket bubbling
with a seemingly irrepressible energy despite carrying
an injury sustained after being attacked by the Continuity
RUC on the Springfield Road as she protested alongside
fellow residents against orange marches in the area.
She hastily points out that she was only one of 46
residents who were injured as a result of beatings
and plastic bullets.
Laura
Friel, a republican writer, itemised some of the day’s
activities:
An
eleven-year-old schoolgirl was taken to Grosvenor
Road barracks and was illegally questioned and forcibly
fingerprinted despite the fact that she was a minor.
A clearly pregnant woman, who pleaded for the safety
of her unborn child, was deliberately batoned in
the stomach by the PSNI/RUC and had to be rushed
to hospital. A Catholic man was beaten, thrown into
a jeep by the PSNI, driven to a loyalist area where
he feared he might be handed over to a loyalist
mob, before being released without charge.
Frances
heads the Springfield Residents Action Group which
was formed in 1996. A grandmother, she claims there
are many things she would like to do with her life
other than lead community resistance to rampant bigotry.
She has experienced it for years and historicises
matters by referring back to 1970 when orange marches
along the Springfield Road led to serious rioting
in Ballymurphy. British Army wreck and raid operations
ensured Ballymurphy would become one of the most fertile
recruiting grounds for the Provisional IRA, producing
some of the organisation’s most accomplished
volunteers.
In
the view of local people, the sheer scale of the military
operation rivalled that at Drumcree. But the link
to Drumcree does not end there. The march along Springfield
Road has assumed a new importance for the bigots because
of the long drawn out defeat the Orange Order is suffering
at Drumcree. Where once they assembled behind the
fool on the hill, Harold Gracey, to celebrate the
victories of centuries ago they now return to the
same spot every year to commemorate the defeat of
a year previous. Like a big orange dinosaur being
perpetually squeezed out of its ‘natural’
habitat and subsequently forced to live on a low calorie
diet of Fenian rights, it is determined to devour
those rights where it can and cling tenaciously to
what remains of its feeding grounds. The Springfield
Road is one of them.
Suggestions by unionists that groups such as that
which Frances works with are merely a front for the
IRA or Sinn Fein are casually dismissed with a wave
of the hand: ‘the community elect the group and
those within it in turn elect me as their spokesperson'.
As For Sinn Fein, 'it has been supportive in reviews
and its members have taken part in white line pickets
but it has not tried to orchestrate, control or manipulate
us for its own ends. You have to remember just how
many Sinn Fein people live in this area. They are
obviously going to be involved. There would be something
wrong if they were not.'
But
is there not a fear that because Sinn Fein have been
attending the cenotaph to lay wreaths in honour of
the British military who died in World War One, that
a similar gesture of ‘reaching out’ would
result in the march being allowed down the road? Frances
seemed unperturbed and stressed that the issue was
local and would be dealt with by local people on the
ground. The wider political context would have to
account for local politics and concerns.
Every
month SRAG - the neat acronym the groups goes by -
trudges through the same weary procedure of sending
the Orange Order a letter reiterating its call for
dialogue as a means to solving the problem of contentious
marches. But there is never reciprocation. If the
loyal sons of Ulster - former prison staff and serving
RIR soldiers among them - like kicking the RUC at
Drumcree what chance of a courteous response to a
‘taig’? Despite that, is there not a case
for allowing a negotiated march down once a year rather
than go through the same tension ridden atmosphere
every July which culminates in the inevitable RUC
attack on nationalist residents? Frances looks at
me as if I have not read the papers or followed events
closely enough.
They
can march 24/7 as far as we are concerned but they
have to enter into dialogue if they want to march
through communities like ours where clearly they
are not wanted. What we oppose is their coat trailing
and trampling over the rights of people. That is
exactly what they have been doing. We have been
seeking negotiation. Dialogue would increase understanding
between the two communities. Without contentious
marches the communities would live in greater harmony.
We offered to allow the march this year if they
agreed to halt them in future years but they simply
didn’t want to know. This was a very difficult
decision for us to reach but in the interests of
peace we felt it was a worthwhile approach to make.
Furthermore, up until last year as a means to reduce
tension we attended cross community meetings in
Forth Spring on the Springfield Road but we had
to stop going because we were threatened.
To
underline the strength of the opposition to the march
Frances pointed to a survey conducted with 1200 residents
around two years ago. Out of those surveyed 1180 households
opposed the march. More houses have been constructed
since then and the sense of opposition and growing
resentment at the orange intrusion has not abated.
Frances
argues that the Parades Commission is much at fault
in the matter. There have been numerous submissions
and representations made to it but to no avail. It
is a 'toothless body'. Only last year because the
one restriction imposed by the Commission was that
no music be played as the bandsmen passed the nationalist
enclave on the Springfield Road, the Orange Order
threatened 'rivers of blood', causing Frances to feel
that ‘old Enoch Powell had come back to life’.
Powell it may be recalled had threatened rivers of
blood in anticipation of British society becoming
more multicultural in the 1960s. This year the Commission
simply ‘did not want to know’ about any
proposals that would allow the march contingent on
it not taking place in future years. ‘The Parades
Commission is treating us as if we are second class
citizens.’ Frances is convinced that it is the
orange use of the threat that ensures the march goes
ahead. This year, she claims, the marchers were so
confident that they could bully their way past the
Commission that they didn't even bother filing for
a march.
Snubbed
by the Commission, taunted and hassled by the RUC,
and treated with contempt by the Orange Order, SRAG
broke off negotiations with the Commission and decided
to withdraw stewards who would normally marshal nationalist
protestors as the march passed by their homes. ‘Why
should we police our own community to suit them? Those
who want to march break every rule in the book, threaten
people and talk to no one. So they have a winning
formula.’
On
the morning of the march a heavy and provocative RUC
presence aggravated the young people of the area.
Alan McQuillan’s statement claiming IRA preparations
for a riot were underway in Ardoyne was viewed as
a set up. Frances believes that McQuillan made that
statement knowing that it would draw youth from the
Springfield Road over to the Ardoyne which in turn
would leave his riot teams a free run in the west
of the city.
The
atmosphere was unbelievable. On the 11th night the
RUC came in. They had bright ribbons flying from
their jeeps. They were pink rather than orange but
we knew what they were at. Photographed or brought
to book they would always claim that they were celebrating
a colleague’s birthday or something equally
as spurious. But it was to let us know they were
merry because of our community being put under yet
another siege. When the RUC attack came it was planned
with military precision. It was brutal and it is
a long time since I have seen such viciousness.
I was attacked and beaten with batons and rammed
with a shield. It reminded me of the film Zulu where
they stood and banged their shields and were obviously
looking to attack people who were defenceless. There
is no way they could ever be reformed. The hatred
goes too deep. They would have to be totally disbanded.
Given
that nationalists are taking their seats on the new
policing board and there is an expectation that Sinn
Fein will soon claim their own as well, will there
not be a growing momentum that would cripple the more
repressive measures of the RUC? But Frances was unconvinced.
‘It will make no difference if Sinn Fein go on
the policing board. They may try their best to change
things but the RUC are too far gone. There is no difference
between the PSNI and the RUC. It is the same people
doing the same things - where is the change in that?’
So
what does the future hold if the police are still
the same, the issue has not been resolved and the
nationalists are determined not to take it lying down?
Frances McAuley breathes deeply and sighs. ‘There
is real anger in the community. Where do we go from
here? We have tried to work within the rules and have
had our efforts rewarded by violence because those
who break all the rules get their way each time. The
kids have no future. The youth will be very angry
next year.’
Hope
springs eternal it seems except in those interface
areas where residents have to put up with drum pounding
bigots, reminding any who doubted it that in the North
of Ireland no pessimist was ever proved wrong.
Index: Current Articles + Latest News and Views + Book Reviews +
Letters + Archives
|
