Marching from the past

Three little boys in three little caskets were laid to rest yesterday. In a gray, chilly churchyard, a priest struggled to find words of consolation and hope. At least for the day, orange and green gave way to funereal black.

The world grieves for Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn. Northern Ireland must do more; it must decide, now or perhaps never, that no more lives will be sacrificed to the past, regardless of whether that past is a recent unavenged atrocity or a battle that took place 308 years ago.

Blame for the deaths of the Quinn brothers belongs solely to the monsters who tossed the firebomb into their home as they slept early Sunday morning. But the fuse was lit by official attempts to block the Orange Day marches. The kind of mind that can conceive of such an inconceivable act does not need much of an excuse to descend into barbarism — a police blockade of an Orange march through the Catholic section of Portadown was more than sufficient.

The annual July 12 marches are imbecilic. Celebrating William of Orange’s Protestant victory over the Catholic King James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 is one thing, it is merely harmless vicarious pride in the deeds of distant ancestors. Demonstrating that pride by marching through Catholic neighborhoods is nothing less than incitement.

But incitement only works when it incites and Northern Ireland could learn much from the United States when it comes to dealing with groups who parade with the intent of stirring up base emotions. Klan marches through black communities, once cause for violence, today generate deliberate yawns. When neo-Nazis swagger through Jewish neighborhoods, no one gives a second look. Suddenly, the white robes and pseudo-military regalia look terribly silly, the marchers dreadfully pathetic. Chances are, the day Northern Ireland decides the Orange marches are irrelevant is the day the marchers will be revealed as the tired old men and young hooligans they truly are.

As he received the Liberty Medal July 4 in Philadephia for his effort in leading Northern Ireland to the Good Friday peace accord, former Sen. Goerge Mitchell said, “I believe with all my heart and soul that there is no such thing as a conflict that can’t be ended,” provided both sides are willing to move beyond the history of outrageous atrocities and grievances that can never be corrected.

If Northern Ireland is to have peace, it will not have it by police blockades. Banning these foolish parades only gives those of murderous intent the self-deluded justification they need to murder. Only when the marches are greeted with disinterest will orange and green not matter so much. Only then will black not be so tragically prevalent.