Orangemen on parade

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32967, 13 July 1972, Page 13

Orangemen on parade

(N.Z P.A.-Reuter—Copyright)

BELFAST, July 12.

Bonfires blazed across Northern Ireland in the early hours of today to celebrate a Protestant victory of long ago, and to proclaim Protestant confidence in any new conflict to come.

The fires were lit, as always in the opening hours of July 12, in honour of the triumph of Prince William of Orange in 1690 against the Roman Catholic King James

ll—a victory which entrenched the Protestant majority in the north of Ireland.

This year, amid fears of an imminent clash between Protestants and the Roman Catholic minority, the fires seemed to have greater significance than usual.

The danger-point will be the celebration parades being held today throughout the province by at least 200,000 members of the Orange Order. Now that the I.R.A. has ended its truce and resumed its terrorism in a bid to shake Ulster loose from British control, there is widespread speculation that Republican gunmen may attack the Protestant marchers; and with Protestant fervour at a high point, observers fear that such a situation could spill over into a long-predicted civil war.

To prevent that happening, security is at its highest level: about 17,000 British troops, along with 6000 policemen and 8000 men of the Ulster Defence Regiment, are on patrol.

The Roman’ Catholics have always frowned on the Orange marches, but since 1935 they have refrained from

attacking them. The new factor in this year’s celebration is the existence of the recently created paramilitary Ulster Defence Association, dedicated to defend Protestant interests.

Its leaders gave a warning after the ending of the 13-day I.R.A. truce, on Sunday, that they might adopt an offensive role unless security forces kept the Republican guerrillas in check. Large squads of U.D.A. men, in masks and combat jackets, patrolled the barricaded Protestant sections of Belfast as the pre-march celebrations extended into the dawn today.

In one Belfast neighbourhood, just off Shankill Road, old women and young children capered round the huge bonfires burning high in the narrow streets.

At one point, a detachment of about 20 U.D.A. men passed by at the double. Instead of the clubs they usually carry in public, they had rifles and shotguns. In Roman Catholic sections of the city, the shooting continued at regular intervals—mostly at Army patrols. One British soldier was killed in Londonderry yesterday and two were wounded in Belfast. Two civilians were also found shot dead in Belfast.