Orange Grand Master calls for unionist unity

The Grand Master of the Orange Order, Mr Robert Saulters, has said the situation at Drumcree will now "probably quieten down …

The Grand Master of the Orange Order, Mr Robert Saulters, has said the situation at Drumcree will now "probably quieten down into a Greenham Common-type protest".

He was speaking after addressing the main Orange demonstration at the "field" at Edenderry outside Belfast yesterday. In his address Mr Saulters bemoaned "the chaotic state of unionism" and warned that "splintered unionism is no match for tightly-knit nationalism".

He said the Portadown Orangemen had been told at last Saturday's proximity talks that they "might get down the road at a later date, maybe in September". That would depend on the Garvaghy Road residents. He accused "Brendan McKenna and Bridget Rodgers" of being the "stumbling blocks" to the Orangemen parading.

"Most worrying is the increasing confidence of the nationalists and the diminishing confidence of the unionists. How to change that unhappy situation for unionism is the political priority which cannot be avoided except to unionism's loss and nationalism's gain."

READ MORE

He began by saying the struggle to maintain the Union with Britain was "tinged with sadness following a week of sad events which culminated in the murder of three small, innocent children - what a crime, what a tragedy".

He said that after the referendum and the Assembly elections unionists had moved into "a new and very different political environment. We cannot know what the future holds for us, but we can decide to do all we can to make certain that those things for which we stand, such as Protestantism and unionism, are not reduced in plan or purpose by lack of defence from us." He urged a "positive approach to these new political circumstances and structures".

Orangemen wanted a fair society which respected the individual, and accepted his right to worship, work and play as he wished. "Our acceptance of these and other human rights anticipates a similar commitment from others, and especially those whose past misdeeds had their horrific effects on people who will always carry the scars of their suffering.

"We must have unquestioned evidence of the total rejection of the use of arms and ammunition in any cause, religious or political. The real proof of that must have decommissioning as an immediate requirement."

Mr Saulters continued: "The greatest annoyance to many unionists in the wake of the Assembly election is not that the SDLP got the top vote or that the Ulster Unionist Party had its worst election result ever, but the chaotic state of unionism."

He warned that media reports of unionist politicians attacking each other would make it harder for them "to be reconciled in different, quieter and less traumatic circumstances". However, he added that "those who have quarrelled will have to work together, whether by choice or compulsion, when the Assembly opens for business".

He said the Order's "deep regret" was that "our political parties prefer opposition and competition to co-operation. The weakness of our divisions makes for the strengthening of our real opponents - the nationalists whose goal is a united Ireland. "They are together in their main objective. Unless unionists can come together to prevent that happening, the future of unionism cannot be guaranteed."

Meanwhile, another senior Orange figure, the Rev Warren Porter, a former grand chaplin of the Order, last night came out in support of the Rev William Bingham's call for the Orangemen to leave Drumcree.