Ulster Must Escape Its History

Nothing better illustrates the struggle between those who cling to a violent past and those who are pursuing a peaceful future than the current standoff in Ulster.

Wearing orange sashes and bowler hats, the Protestant Orangemen on Sunday ushered more discord into the troubled region, demanding to parade as usual through Catholic neighborhoods. Every summer this Protestant brotherhood reminds Catholics of their military defeat by William of Orange in 1690; about 3,000 parades are held to celebrate the imposition of British rule in Ireland.

This year, things should have been different. In May 71% in Northern Ireland voted for a historic peace agreement. Then the voters elected the new Northern Ireland Assembly, choosing a Protestant Unionist and a Catholic nationalist for the top two posts.

So far the Orangemen have refused to acknowledge the will of the majority. They have missed the profound meaning of a governing body whose two top leaders are a Protestant and a Catholic. They have refused to engage in a dialogue with the Catholic residents of the areas where they insist they must parade. They have refused to seek a compromise that would let them march while sparing those to whom the fifes and drums are a bitter rebuke.

Now British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who fostered the original agreement, has offered to hear the Orange Order’s demands. Blair may be able to move its members in the right direction, but the Orangemen themselves must dissuade supporters of violence.

The May agreement offers a new beginning in relationships, between north and south and between Britain and Ireland. A group of angry men besotted by a violent history should not be allowed to sabotage it.