Democracy and human rights for Protestants and Unionists
have been significantly sidelined in Northern Ireland, as
the incessant wave of Government concessions to Irish nationalism
and republicanism continues.
The official drip-feed to the insatiable demands of the pan-nationalist
front has been aided by the outpourings of the Belfast Agreement
of April 1998, which clearly has been a disaster for the Unionist
community and, sadly, is still being facilitated by some Unionists
in the corridors of power at Stormont.
Unionism is in a state of disarray largely through the battering
it has received from its own Government and the deep divisions
which have arisen in the Protestant and Unionist community
over tactics used by elected representatives to defend the
Union.
The Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, while supporting the concept
of a fully democratic devolved parliament for Northern Ireland,
has been consistent in its opposition to an Agreement which
has resulted in a self-confessed terrorist sitting in Government
along with a colleague from a party which is inextricably
linked to the terror organisation which was responsible for
most of the murders committed during the Troubles of the past
30 years.
A most appalling development from the pernacious Belfast
Agreement was the early release of convicted republican and
loyalist terrorists, criminals found guilty of the most heinous
crimes. Now terrorists on the run are to be granted an amnesty.
The Belfast Agreement has also led to the total demise of
the R.U.C., a gallant police force which provided assurance
and stability over a period of 80 years for the decent law-abiding
people of Northern Ireland, both Protestant and Roman Catholics.
The traditional symbols which confirm the Britishness of
Northern Ireland as a part of the United Kingdom are being
needlessly swept aside by a Government, whose Secretary of
State in the Province is arrogantly working to his own narrow
agenda, which is not far removed from that of Irish pan-nationalism.
The official badge of the new Northern Ireland Police Force
is to be devoid of anything which indicates a British connection,
the Union flag is no longer to be flown outside police stations
and the official insignia associated with the British justice
system is to be removed from courts in the Province.
Composition of the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission
has been deliberately loaded to provide it with a nationalist
majority and Protestant/Unionist culture and tradition is
denigrated as being meaningless and of no value in the new
society which political masters in an uncaring British establishment
are shaping for us.
Is it any wonder that many Ulster Protestants are proclaiming
that their beloved homeland is rapidly becoming a cold unsympathetic
house for them, as nationalists and republicans pocket all
the gains and refuse to concede the legitimacy of Northern
Ireland, expressed democratically through the ballot box?
Yet, incredibly, all this is being inflicted on a community
which represents 60 per cent of the population of Northern
Ireland. So much for minority rights, what about the rights
of the down-trodden Protestant majority?
The inherent dangers for our British citizenship in Northern
Ireland which have emerged from the terms of the British Agreement
cannot be ignored any longer and Unionists must unite on a
common policy which preserves our way of life and heritage.
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