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suntimes.com/output/greeley/cst-edt-greel23.html
Andrew Greeley
**The high cost of Protestant hatred **
September 23, 2005
**BY ANDREW GREELEY**
The Protestant violence in Northern Ireland continues to prevent in that part of the island the astonishing prosperity that the rest of Ireland enjoys.
Last week there was more violence in Northern Ireland. Some news reports had hard-line Protestants fighting with hard-line Catholics. In fact, Catholics weren’t involved at all. The Parades Commission, which regulates the paths of the Orange Order sectarian hate parades, required a parade to follow a path that did not go through a Catholic neighborhood. That was an occasion for a well-planned and -organized militant Protestant outburst against their own almost entirely Protestant police force and the British army. The militants, two violent Protestant groups who have also been routinely killing one another, managed to wound more than 40 Protestant cops. The IRA, note well, hasn’t done anything like that for many years. The Rev. Ian Paisley, head of the Ulster Democratic Party, blamed the Parades Commission and called for a reform “in root and branch” of the commission – doubtless so that the Orange Order, which is all too ready to wound and risk killing Protestant police, can pound its drums and march through Catholic neighborhoods again.
Andrew Greeley
**The high cost of Protestant hatred **
September 23, 2005
**BY ANDREW GREELEY**
The Protestant violence in Northern Ireland continues to prevent in that part of the island the astonishing prosperity that the rest of Ireland enjoys.
Last week there was more violence in Northern Ireland. Some news reports had hard-line Protestants fighting with hard-line Catholics. In fact, Catholics weren’t involved at all. The Parades Commission, which regulates the paths of the Orange Order sectarian hate parades, required a parade to follow a path that did not go through a Catholic neighborhood. That was an occasion for a well-planned and -organized militant Protestant outburst against their own almost entirely Protestant police force and the British army. The militants, two violent Protestant groups who have also been routinely killing one another, managed to wound more than 40 Protestant cops. The IRA, note well, hasn’t done anything like that for many years. The Rev. Ian Paisley, head of the Ulster Democratic Party, blamed the Parades Commission and called for a reform “in root and branch” of the commission – doubtless so that the Orange Order, which is all too ready to wound and risk killing Protestant police, can pound its drums and march through Catholic neighborhoods again.
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