Sinn Fein/IRA orchestrated areas of conflict

Republicans Try To Disrupt Orange Gathering-1999

Child musicians in an East Belfast silver band were so frightened by a violent picket of an Orange Order cultural concert at the Waterfront Hall, Belfast on Monday night, March 29, that they could not complete their scheduled stage performance. The Symington Memorial Silver Band from Dundonald had a prime spot on the evening of entertainment and information organised by the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, but band officials withdrew from the programme concerned for the safety of the younger members.

The republican crowd, which numbered several hundred, included Ormeau Road street activist Gerard Rice and his Londonderry counterpart Donicah McNellis.

They carried anti-Orange placards and hurled sectarian abuse and insults at Orangemen and their friends entering the Waterfront Hall for the show. Stones and missiles were thrown and violent scuffles and considerable police reinforcements had to be called to restore order.

The protesters were eventually moved back away from the entrance to the hall. Orange Order executive officer George Patton said he fully understood the Symington band's decision to take the young members home early. "It was a very nasty situation which confronted our brethren and supporters and friends as they entered the Waterfront Hall and it did show up the bigoted, narrow-minded people who are intent on violently denying us our Orange and Protestant culture and traditions," said George Patton. "Apart from the understandable withdrawal of the Symington band, our programme of musical entertainment and information exchange went ahead as arranged, and the 2,000 people present thoroughly enjoyed the evening," he added.

Northern Ireland Unionist Assembly member Norman Boyd said that he and his wife were punched and kicked as they entered the hall. Mr. Boyd criticised the R.U.C. for allowing the protesters to gather so close to the front of the hall, despite having advance warning of the protest. "Those attending the event were forced to run a gauntlet of harassment. My wife and I were punched and kicked by protesters as we tried to enter the building and other Orange brethren and friends also came under intense provocation. The R.U.C. had plenty of warning about this protest, but yet they still let the crowd gather right up to the front doors of the hall," he said. Lisburn Orangeman David Archer said that when he and his lodge colleagues arrived at the Waterfront Hall at around 7.15 p.m. on Monday, they were confronted by a crowd of about 200 republican protesters, who violently tried to prevent them entering the hall. "The protests and the violent scenes were clearly orchestrated.

Such rent-a-mob tactics are now becoming a well-renowned measure used by republicans in their ongoing attempts to prevent decent law-abiding Protestants from celebrating their culture," said Mr. Archer. "In arranging this two-day event at the Waterfront Hall, the Orange Institution is endeavouring to make itself more accessible to the public and remove some of the misconceptions which surround the Order. It is disgraceful that our efforts should be met with such violent and thuggish behaviour," he added. Mid-Ulster U.U.P. Assembly member Billy Armstrong said the Waterfront Hall scenes were simply "another extension of Sinn Fein/I.R.A.'s sectarianism and hate for the Protestant people". "Republicans are incesantly denying the Protestant people of Northern Ireland civil and religious liberty and our right to exercise our culture," said Mr. Armstrong. D.U.P.

Assembly member Nigel Dodds said the protest was part of the republican strategy aimed at destroying the Orange Order. P.U.P. leader David Ervine expressed fury at the republican protest. "These fascists have to understand how this would react out in the unionist community. This is an attempt to suppress culture and these republicans have now identified that they will accept nothing but their own," he said. Belfast U.U.P. councillor Jim Rodgers was given an assurance from senior R.U.C. officers at Musgrave Street station that a higher security presence would be in place for the second evening of the Orange Order festival, on Tuesday, March 20, before another capacity audience of 2,000.