How bigoted, thick and ill-informed do you have to be to think that there is something controversial about Heather Humphrey’s husband having attended an Orange function? Are those righteously indignant finger-waggers not – at least in some cases – the very same characters who fly the Tricolour in their front gardens? So, what are the three colours on that national flag? That Orange band is not an accident. It is there deliberately and specifically to represent and embrace the Orange tradition as equal in status and deserving of respect as the green. The white bar between them stands for peace, though it might equally stand for hypocrisy, since so little respect has ever been shown to the Orange tradition by institutions and politics in this Republic.
This year marked the 25th anniversary of a shameful defeat for genuine pluralism and tolerance and Inclusiveness. There had been plans to have a small Orange march through the centre of Dublin to commemorate the foundation of the Orange Order and the order’s first meeting in Dawson Street. But the walk was cancelled following bitter agitation, led by one Mary Lou Lanigan-McDonald. Hmm: what became of her, I wonder?
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