Troubles in Northern Ireland

It's that time of the year again. Time for rioting in Northern Ireland. According to the accepted version the peace process is now so advanced that the possibility of serious chaos in Northern Ireland is gone for ever. I don't believe it. There is a possibility that at the next elections there Sinn Fein will win an overall majority in Stormant and we must watch to see how much peace that brings. Support for the Unionists may have declined in Northern Ireland but I will believe that the people really have left the past behind them only when they stop the annual nonsense that takes place in August with the Orange Order marches and Apprentice Boys parades.

Few people outside of Northern Ireland know what it's all about anyway. And its not surprising. How many people know about the Glorious Revolution of 1688 when the Stuarts shuffled themselves around a bit and changed kings? It is actually more true to say that they were forced to shuffle themselves about by an increasingly assertive parliament. Having stayed around as king for 25 years after his restoration, Charles II suddenly died in 1685. In spite of his many relationships there was no one left as heir to the throne ahead of his brother James, who became James II. Unfortunately, James had decided that he was a Catholic and when he produced a male heir, parliament was so opposed to the idea of a new Catholic dynasty that they thought of the wizard wheeze of inviting the Dutch William of Orange to become king instead. This is beginning to read like "1066 And All That". Having another Catholic king would, clearly, have been a bad thing. William of Orange was the son of Mary, Charles II sister, and he was married to another Mary, the daughter of James II. So James II was both his uncle and his father-in-law.

Unable to raise sufficient forces to resist, James II left London - he abdicated, it was said, when he threw the great seal of office into the Thames. Then, in 1688, he tried to raise an army in Ireland and fight to recover his throne. It was in 1688 that the apprentice boys in Londonderry slammed shut the gates of the city and instigated a resistance in which the city withstood a siege lasting for 5 months before they were relieved by Protestant forces. In 1690, James was defeated at the the Battle of the Boyne and he finally gave up on his ambitions on the English throne.

But, why does all this have to be remembered and re-enacted every August with accompanying riots and demonstrations? When this all stops, Northern Ireland will become a proper country at last. Don't hold your breath.

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