Sir, - The sight of Harold Gracey speaking on Sunday in front of the barrier at Drumcree was pathetic but instructive. Typifying the skewed logic that only makes any sense within his section of the loyalist community, this bitter, rambling old man railed against everyone who didn't fully support his cause, and exposed the emptiness of his reason.
The Orangemen's only argument for getting down the Garvaghy Road - that they have been doing it for hundreds of years - is not an argument at all. In their eyes, because something has always happened, it should continue to happen forever. It was traditional too, for many years at different points in the past, that only men had the vote, that leeches were the only treatment for a range of medical disorders, that black people were second-class citizens in South Africa and the American South. There are few now who would wish for a return of these traditions.
This section of Orangeism has lost, and will only realise it after the battle has been lost completely. They have lost because the idea of change is unstoppable and yet is the one concept that they cannot even conceive of, let alone embrace. The Britain they are loyal to is the Britain of the 17th century. The only question is how much damage they will cause before they are finally swamped by the present and future. - Yours, etc.,
Lorcan McNamee, Rathedmond, Sligo.