Who is to blame for the ghastly deaths of young Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn and the immolation of their home at Ballymoney? When the First Minister, Mr David Trimble, was asked the question yesterday he replied that it was whoever firebombed the house and he called for those involved to be brought swiftly to justice. It is well-nigh impossible for most people to put themselves inside the sort of mind which can commit such a savage act and the First Minister's response may have reflected a reluctance to suggest that there is a wider responsibility. But there are degrees of guilt which spread outward from a crime such as this. Responsibility does not begin or end with the degenerates whose hands lit the petrol bombs or smashed the windows.
The majority of the members of the Orange Order may have been sickened by the atrocity at Ballymoney. And the response of senior members, starting early yesterday with the Rev William Bingham, reflected the humanity and righteousness which Orangeism, at its best, should stand for. But it was far from universal. The Portadown spokesman, Mr David Jones, might have been referring to a distant, unconnected event in another country when asked if the Ballymoney deaths might alter his attitude to marching the Garvaghy Road. With the remains of the Quinn home still smouldering, Mr Jones employed an ominous euphemism. If there were a "change in the security situation", following a further rejection of the Orangemen's right to march, responsibility would rest with the chairman of the Parades Commission. It would be difficult to conjure up a logic more perverted or devoid of moral responsibility.
What has happened in Ballymoney was wholly capable of prediction. With the nightly unleashing of atavistic forces it was virtually inevitable that someone, somewhere, was going to die. Let it be said: many who would consider themselves to be upright and God-fearing people contributed to the climate which took the lives of the Quinn children. It is a truism that the right of free speech does not extend to shouting "fire" in a crowded theatre. The right to march a stretch of highway whose residents wish to be left alone cannot be secured through violence which sees roads blocked, houses destroyed, policemen injured and, finally, young children burned to death. Only the wilfully blind or the morally obtuse can exculpate themselves in these circumstances.
But even the cruel deaths of three young children are not sufficient to persuade the Orangemen of Portadown to call a halt to the madness and the spreading lawlessness generated from Drumcree. They intend to remain there, a nightly focus of bitterness and anger. Today, all over Northern Ireland, Orangemen will march in traditional procession, celebrating the victory of the Boyne and proclaiming the freedoms and liberties won by their ancestors. It would do a great deal to restore Orangeism's tattered image before the world at large, and it would serve to distance the moderates from the continuing, hardline stance of the Portadown brethren, if each parade were to make a gesture of respect and regret, a pause or a brief silence, to mark the tragedy of Ballymoney. It will be telling to see how many will make even such a minimal gesture.
It is time for those who hold public office to choose: to decide whether they believe in democracy or in the sectarian supremacism of an organisation whose principles and attitudes remain grounded in the political thinking of the 18th century. If the events of the past week have shown anything, it is that grief and death will inevitably accompany confrontation and failure to compromise. Since the elections of June 25th Northern Ireland has new democratic institutions based on principles of sharing, of mutual esteem and accommodation. It is within such institutions that the future will be shaped, not at the barricades or in camps upon the hillside.