Norman Tebbit, bomb victim on mature reflection of Troubles
Sam McBride, Sunday Independent and Sunday Life, July 13th, 2025
TEBBIT NEVER FORGAVE PIRA BUT HE COULD SMILE AT CHUCKLE BROTHERS
Norman Tebbit was divisive in life and he divided in death. Having revelled in the demise of some of his enemies, this key ally of Margaret Thatcher may well have accepted that some of those foes would rejoice in his own end.
As someone who rolled with the punches, he would hardly have been the sort to demand people be prosecuted for "hate crimes” over crudely insensitive gloating.
This Tory grandee came to personify right-wing Englishness, yet in a long interview I did with him at his home in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk 14 years ago, he surprised me.
I expected ferocious hostility to republicans, nostalgia for Thatcher and furious regret for the career — and the healthy wife — stolen from him by the IRA. He was all those things. But he was far more nuanced and intriguing than the simplistic caricature of an old-school conservative.
The former cabinet minister was able to see beyond his own righteous anger to the wider significance of how republicanism was being transformed away from the violence that buried him in the rubble in Brighton's Grand Hotel. He told me Sinn Féin could no longer be simply equated with the IRA, explaining that in the past he had referred to "IRA-Sinn Féin”, but no longer did.
Of handshakes and Baptism
The interview was days before Martin McGuinness's historic handshake with Queen Elizabeth in Belfast.
He compared the expected encounter to the pagan Viking chieftain Guthrum being baptised a Christian after defeat in battle by Alfred the Great in 878, something that assimilated him into the establishment. Tebbit's knowledge of history allowed him to see the incorporation of his enemy into the UK mainstream as something that had a long history and was, in fact, central to the Britishness he cherished.
He told of how, after the Dane's conversion, one of Alfred's daughters married Guthrum's son.
"There are times when it has to be established in the long term that a war is over, and if the terms have been set up right then you may have established the peace,” he said.
"Very disagreeable no doubt for the Danes' establishment, but very wise. So I guess we have to look at the island of Ireland in that way.”
When I asked how he felt about the prospect of McGuinness meeting the queen, he smiled and said: "That's the battlefield moment, isn't it? It's rather like the moment of the Danish king being baptised, isn't it?”
He laughed, then added: "We can have our doubts as to whether he understood fully the doctrine of Christianity... but he took the water.”
Wife paralysed from neck down
Tebbit had more reason than most to be bitter towards republicans. His wife, Margaret, was left paralysed from the neck down after Brighton. Tebbit had been seen as a likely successor to Thatcher, but he chose to withdraw from elected politics, prioritising his wife's needs over his ambitions. As he recalled those hours lying under the rubble in 1984, he said sombrely: "It's a very lonely place, being buried.”
Although he and his wife were seriously injured, they were able to speak while trapped ahead of what he thought was impending death.
Tebbit always remembered Fred Bishop, the courageous firefighter who made a decision that saved the lives of the politician, his wife and several colleagues. He recalled how when the alarm triggered in the fire station, the firefighters set off, unaware of what had happened.
As the dust cleared, they saw the hotel front blown out.
‘I never forget Fred’
Tebbit said: "Fred stopped the fire engine, said to the chaps, 'Chaps, you know the rules. If that was a bomb, we have to wait for the bomb squad to give us clearance to go in. I think it was a gas explosion, don't you?' The boys said, 'Yeah Fred, it was a gas explosion'.
"I'm not sure that that would happen these days. Health and safety, 'more than my job's worth'. Fred would probably have been prosecuted and sacked for doing it. But if he hadn't, certainly my wife and I would have died, John Wakeham would have died, Harvey Thomas would have died, quite a few more would have died. I never forget Fred.”
I asked how he felt on seeing the images of McGuinness and Ian Paisley sitting together and laughing in 2007, which saw them dubbed the Chuckle Brothers. He said: "I smiled a little. But more wars have probably ended that way than with the losing side going to jail or being executed.”
Yet his wife was upstairs, unable to get out of bed — the living embodiment of the human suffering caused by the violence some people now celebrate with glib chants.
Tebbit said: "She lost her career as a nurse, she has never been able to cuddle her grandchildren in her arms, nor even turn the pages of a book or manage an iPad. She suffers pain throughout her waking hours and is totally dependent upon her carers for her every need.”
The same people who now decry Israel for justifying the killing of multiple civilians while targeting a Hamas operative think nothing of lauding those who maimed a nurse because they disliked her husband.
More terrifying than Thatcher
To get the interview, I had to go through Tebbit's gatekeeper, Beryl Goldsmith, of whom Tory MPs were more terrified than of Thatcher. Initially frosty, she softened when I explained I wanted to discuss Northern Ireland and the impact of the bomb.
"I was with him in Brighton,” she said, adding that she could never forgive "those people” for what they did to the Tebbits.
Tebbit remained hardline to the end. When McGuinness died, he was in more familiar form, saying he hoped he would spend eternity burning in "a particularly hot and unpleasant corner of hell”.
Yet beneath that exterior was more pragmatism than many people got to see. He told me that "the Sinn Féin of today is not the IRA”, and as more IRA men died away "then Sinn Féin gradually becomes a party with legitimate aspirations and legitimate policies”. He said it was "perfectly legitimate” for a party to want a united Ireland.
Tebbit's bitterness endured. He loathed republicans who endorsed the violence that destroyed his life. But even if he was never reconciled to them, he saw that some rapprochement was necessary.
Politicians fiddle while children's future burns
ALREADY MARGINALISED COMMUNITY CONDEMNED OVER BONFIRE - YET SIGNIFICANT IF SUBTLE SHIFTS IN ATTITUDES
Máiría Cahill, Sunday Independent, July 13th, 2025
'A Dublin newspaper?” The freckle-faced wood-collector eyed me suspiciously last Thursday, then asked: "Are they not all Catholics?” I laughed at his childish honesty. "They f´***in' hate us. Sure, they're trying to get our bonfire taken away,” he said, adding: "I don't like them either.”
Quick as a flash, and catching us both off-guard, came another child's response: "Hey, my nanny and granda are Catholics.”
The future. A lad excited about collecting wood with his mates, equally comfortable with his Protestant identity as he is with his grandparents' differing one. Subtle shifts matter.
A gaggle of boys, aged four to 14, were eager to show me their mini bonfire in the shadow of the 4,000 pallets that made up the larger one. A few hundred yards away lay a pile of covered asbestos. On the other side, a substation.
People raised obvious safety concerns. The bonfire builders listened initially. Once nationalist and Alliance politicians called for the cancellation of the event, they switched off.
The Village area, a warren of mainly two-up-two-down red-brick houses, has a history of disenfranchisement exacerbated by sectarian lines. It ranks in the top 10pc of Northern Ireland's most deprived areas.
During Belfast's industrialisation, it carried a proud history of working-class millers, textile workers and shipbuilders. Now, generational unemployment is rife. Voting turnout figures are abysmal, and 48pc of children attending the local primary are entitled to free school meals. There is almost no greenery. The highlight of the year for these kids is collecting bonfire wood to burn. Any wonder?
The boys lifted pallets above their heads, scurrying towards the older men like excited little ants, business as usual. They had just heard that the PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher had declined an 11th-hour Belfast City Council request to accompany contractors to remove the bonfire.
Boucher’s warning
Only a few months ago, he warned Northern politicians that his service was under-resourced. It would take a "catastrophic event” to wake people up, he said. He avoided one this week as the controversial July 12 bonfire went ahead on Friday.
Statutory agencies had only moved to serve an abatement notice to the site owner regarding the asbestos in May, despite the bonfire site being active since January. They used quarry dust and tarpaulin to bury the asbestos mound and placed steel around the substation.
The people building the bonfire, who engaged throughout, took this as a signal that, while the area was not ideal, it was as safe as they could make it. Given that they claim they raised the issue and minimal action was taken in response, the community feels hard done by. On Thursday, former lord mayor Bob Stoker told BBC's Talkback programme: "Nobody came last year when there was a really bad storm... the asbestos was getting blown about.”
I remember this line, and I want to scream as I watch a four-year-old blond-haired child drumming on a pallet at the site. His father takes him to their local flute band practices, like his father before him. The boy's face swells with pride when I tell him he's good.
Many politicians went on the radio and urged the community to consider public safety. It's not hard to see why the message was not landing with its intended audience: as they see it, who is looking after theirs?
During my visit, bonfire-builders remove pallets from the bonfire to reduce its height in response to the furore. They discuss lighting it from the right-hand side so it will fall away from the substation.
Loyalists spend months building their bonfires to towering infernos. We spend years building our peace process and then regularly scorch it too. Tempers flare, and heels dig in. Paramilitaries feed off these moments like flies on cadavers. That is the time for political leadership. Where was the joint statement from the Northern Executive? There was none — because they couldn't agree.
Pass the parcel
Nobody comes out of this covered in glory. Officialdom appears to have played pass-the-parcel with responsibility, in the full knowledge that the bonfire was continuing to be built.
With bonfires come children. Where was the urgency? Why was it left until this week to erupt?
We are almost three decades on from the Good Friday Agreement. That no SDLP, Alliance or Sinn Féin politician engaged directly with the bonfire-builders on site is an abdication of responsibility. Pontificating on the airwaves might bring in votes from the leafy suburbs. Working-class communities like this one need to see action.
Would they have been welcome? When I arrived, a sign hung from the bonfire about my old party that read: "SDLP erasing Loyalist culture.” But the bonfire-builders engaged with me. Outside the site, two children sat on the pavement suntrap, playing 'house' with their dolls as I left, totally oblivious to the row raging around them. Later, the Environment Agency announced that it had discovered more loose asbestos.
Nationalist politicians flooded the airwaves, urging the community to rethink. Unionist politicians backed the bonfire-builders. One wonders why our politicians, who still can't get their own act together to collectively lead for the greater good, can seriously expect communities to care enough not to follow their example.
The bonfire site was once a weaver's factory. Further up the Donegall Road, a tribute to an 1891 poem by Ulster weaver poet Eliza Hamilton reads: "I started work when I was eight/my childhood lost at the factory gate…I swore the day when I was wed/My child would have a childhood.”
What springs to mind is the Paul Brady line: "Up here we sacrifice our children, to feed those worn-out dreams of yesterday.”
Our youngsters have been failed abysmally.
UVF planned to make Belfast interface a warzone if council tried to remove asbestos bonfire
Sunday Life Reporter, July 13th, 2025
WARNING OF 'SERIOUS DISORDER' SHOULD MOVES BE MADE TO AXE CONTROVERSIAL PYRE TERRORISTS PLANNED TO STRETCH COPS WITH RIOTS AT BELFAST INTERFACE
Loyalist paramilitaries had planned to turn the Broadway roundabout in Belfast into a “warzone” if attempts had been made to remove the controversial Village bonfire before the Eleventh Night.
That was the warning to authorities from loyalists in the area who built the bonfire next to an electricity substation, which powers two Belfast hospitals, and several asbestos dumps.
A Belfast City Council plan to remove the bonfire amid health and safety fears did not go ahead after the PSNI refused to act as guards for contractors.
Had the removal taken place, the interface around the bottom of the Donegall Road and the Broadway roundabout, which is known locally as the 'Balls on the Falls', loyalist paramilitaries planned to cause mayhem in the area.
The bonfire is linked to the UVF and its leader in the Village, the well-known loyalist Colin 'Meerkat' Fulton.
The UVF boss previously lost a High Court case against the media to stop journalists reporting on his paramilitary activities.
“Meerkat lives beside the bonfire and oversaw it being built,” a source in the Village told Sunday Life.
“It was the UVF which made the threats about how the roundabout would be turned into a warzone if attempts were made to remove the bonfire.”
Mob
Earlier in the week, the PSNI declared the bonfire a major incident after the UDA and UVF issued a joint statement warning about the possibility of “serious and sustained disorder”.
A UVF source added: “This reference to 'serious and sustained disorder' was linked to Meerkat's UVF mob talking about the roundabout becoming a warzone.
“The UVF plan was that if attempts were made to remove the bonfire, there would be a major riot at the roundabout and, with the police stretched, it would be lit early.”
That nightmare scenario did not come to pass due to police refusing to back up Belfast City Council contractors who were to be tasked with taking down the bonfire.
PSNI sources say the council plan was so “half-baked” they did not even get time to consider the possibility of how to deal with paramilitary-backed rioting.
The Broadway roundabout at the Westlink has been the scene of serious public disorder in recent years, including sectarian and racial violence.
Environment Minister Andrew Muir expressed disappointment that the Village bonfire went ahead despite warnings over health and safety and the possible loss of power at the Royal Victoria and City Hospitals.
He said: “I am very disappointed with the decision to light the bonfire.
“Northern Ireland Environment Agency (NIEA) staff monitored events last night along with statutory partners throughout the night.
“We will be engaging with other statutory partners in the coming days as we all assess the impact of the bonfire.
“NIEA will also focus on the efforts by the landowner to remove the asbestos pile safely from the site in the time ahead and the environmental crime investigation will continue.
“As I have already stated, a review must also be undertaken looking at lessons that can be learned involving all statutory partners.”
Effigies of rap trio Kneecap and a grammatically incorrect Irish-language slogan urging people to “kill your local Kneecap” were burnt on the pyre.
Another sign read: “SDLP and Alliance do not represent our community.”
The Village bonfire was one of dozens of pyres which were ignited to mark the Eleventh Night.
Separately, a poster featuring Kneecap along with sectarian slogans was attached to an Eleventh Night bonfire on Eastvale Avenue in Dungannon.
It featured the heading 'Kill your local Kneecap', with a further line stating: “The only good one is a dead one.” In the centre of the poster is the acronym 'KAT', with 'Death to Hamas' and 'Destroy all Irish Republicans' also on the banner.
A bonfire at Roden Street in Belfast was topped with effigies of Kneecap, as well as a sign written in the Irish language.
There was also criticism of the placing of Irish flags and sectarian slogans on a number of bonfires, including one in the Highfield area of west Belfast.
The Northern Ireland Fire and Rescue Service (NIFRS) said it dealt with 72 bonfire-related incidents across the evening.
One firefighter was attacked while attending a bonfire in Lisburn, Co Antrim.
NIFRS area commander Andy Burns said: “Between 6pm on July 11 and 2am on July 12, 2025, we received 277 emergency 999 calls.
“This resulted in our firefighters attending 194 operational incidents, 72 of which were bonfire related. Peak activity was between 10pm and 1am.
“During this period, the number of emergency calls received increased by 154%, when compared to 2024.
“It was a challenging and extremely busy night for NIFRS.”
Attack
The spokesperson added: “Disappointingly, a firefighter was attacked while attending a bonfire in Lisburn. They were not injured and remained on duty.
“This was an isolated incident and not reflective of the support shown to firefighters in carrying out their duties across the evening.”
Sinn Fein councillor Declan Lynch said it was “absolutely disgraceful that a firefighter was attacked while simply doing their job”.
He added: “Everyone should be able to celebrate their culture, but it must be done in a safe and respectful manner.
“Firefighters worked under difficult conditions last night to protect lives, property and infrastructure across the north.
“They deserve our full support and should never face violence for keeping our communities safe.”
A small number of bonfires were lit on Thursday night, including a controversial pyre in Moygashel, Co Tyrone which had been widely criticised by political representatives and church leaders after it was topped with an effigy of migrants in a boat.
The PSNI said they were investigating a hate incident in relation to the fire.
The boat on top of the bonfire contained more than a dozen life-sized mannequins wearing life jackets.
Below the boat were several placards, one of which read “Stop the boats” and another stating “Veterans before refugees”.
Tens of thousands of people took part in Twelfth celebrations in scorching temperatures
Jonathan McCambridge, John Toner, Jessica Rice and Abdullah Sabri, Sunday Life, July 13th, 2025
TENS OF THOUSANDS LINE STREETS OF VILLAGES, TOWNS AND CITIES ORANGE ORDER WELCOMES THE 'LARGEST CROWD IN GENERATION'
Tens of thousands of people took part in Twelfth of July celebrations in scorching temperatures yesterday.
Crowds lined the streets in cities, towns and villages as bands and marchers gathered at 19 locations to mark the anniversary of the Battle of the Boyne.
There were events in Belfast, Ballymena, Dundonald, Kesh, Coleraine, Keady, Coagh, Sixmilecross, Augher, Dromara, Dundrum, Kilkeel, Cullybackey, Rasharkin, Carnlough, Lisburn, Glengormley, Portglenone and Maghera.
The meetings heard calls for unionist parties to cooperate on common issues.
Momentous
The celebrations took place with temperatures above 25C across Northern Ireland.
A temperature of 30C was recorded in Magilligan, the first time the milestone had been reached locally since July 18, 2022.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson addressed the parade in Belfast, and Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly delivered a speech at an event in Lisburn.
Ulster Unionist MP Robin Swann spoke at the parade in Carnlough.
Grand master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland Edward Stevenson hailed the institution's annual commemoration as a “another momentous Twelfth, with the largest crowds witnessed for a generation”.
Orange Order deputy grand master Harold Henning told the parade in Maghera unionist parties had to work together.
He said: “The leadership of this institution remains consistent in its desire to see closer collaboration between the leadership of our pro-union political parties so as to maximise unionist representation at all levels of government.
“Cooperation between our political representatives must be encouraged.
“More than that, it should be demanded, and country should always come before party or individual self -interest.
“Let's get that message out to our politicians. As a people, we want to see more unity of purpose across political unionism.”
One of the largest parades took place in Keady, where Orange Order grand secretary Mervyn Gibson spoke about the strengths of the Union.
He said: “We need to promote the Union at every opportunity, a union that has stood the test of time and continues to offer its citizens stability, opportunity, and purpose.
“At its heart, the United Kingdom is more than just a political entity.
“It is a partnership of four nations — England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland — each with its own identity, traditions and strengths.
“Let us concentrate on building and promoting the Union, which a generation defended during the Troubles against the murderous, cowardly terrorist campaign of republicans.”
In a pre-Twelfth email to DUP members, Gavin Robinson said that politicians should take note of the Orange Institution's “unifying power”.
“Across towns and villages, it brings together people from every walk of life, reminding us of the strength that comes when we stand side by side,” he added.
“That is a message unionism must learn from. We achieve more together than we do apart.
“Divided unionism has already cost us dearly.
“As we look ahead to Assembly and council elections in two years' time, we must explore how to maximise the pro-Union vote and return more unionist representatives, not fewer.
Identity
“The need for common purpose and cooperation has never been more obvious or more essential.”
Addressing the Orange Order gathering in Lisburn, Emma Little-Pengelly referenced the Windsor Framework, saying Westminster must deliver on its promise to restore unfettered trade between Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK.
She also called on unionist political parties to work together to tackle common problems.
The deputy first minister said unionism faced “new challenges”. She continued: “Chief amongst them is the imposition of the sea border within our own country, a division between Northern Ireland and the rest of the United Kingdom that no unionist can ever truly accept.
“It is not enough to celebrate our culture if we do not stand to defend it.
“The Union is not a distant idea. It is our political, economic and emotional home.
“A border in the Irish Sea undermines that home. It divides our people, disrupts our trade and dilutes our identity.
“The Government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland made a clear and unambiguous promise to fully restore unfettered internal trade across this United Kingdom.
“That was a promise to the people of Northern Ireland. They must deliver it.”
Ms Little-Pengelly described the Orange Order as a “great unifier across many strands of our unionist conviction”.
She said: “Unionism must work together outside of the order. This is a time for vigilance, but it is also a time of opportunity.
“Division brings fracture and weakness. It is unity that brings strength. We must recognise that the bonds which pull and bind us together will always mean we have so much more in common than what can ever divide us.
“Let us recognise the talents and abilities across all shades of unionism, and by using all such, our case will not only be strengthened, but indeed undeniable and irresistible.
“The might of the case for our continued union will always be our biggest strength.”
South Antrim MP Robin Swann also criticised the Windsor Framework during a speech at the Twelfth event in Carnlough.
In a message to Secretary of State Hilary Benn, Mr Swann said the Union was a commitment, not a convenience.
“The Windsor Framework does not restore our place fully in the UK internal market,” he added.
“It leaves Northern Ireland subject to foreign laws we cannot change. It carves a regulatory border between Larne and Stranraer, between Belfast and Ayrshire.
Compromised
“It sends a message that our place in the United Kingdom is conditional, that our rights as British citizens are somehow less equal than those across the water.
“The framework may offer tweaks, but it does not solve the problem. Our economic, constitutional, and democratic rights remain compromised.
“So, we say to Secretary of State Hilary Benn, the Union is not a convenience. It is a commitment.
“Northern Ireland must be fully, equally and permanently part of it, and you need to step up to the job you have been given.”
An Orange Order feeder parade passed the Ardoyne shops in north Belfast without incident yesterday morning.
A return parade was due to pass the shops this morning, but be restricted to one band and 50 members of the Orange Order.
The traditional events organised by the Royal Black Preceptory, including the sham fight between actors playing King William of Orange and King James II, will be held in Scarva tomorrow.
Anger as Orange hall attacked hours before village hosts Twelfth parade
Adrian Rutherford, Sunday Life, July 13th, 2025
A Co Antrim Orange hall has been vandalised hours before a Twelfth parade.
Paint was thrown and graffiti daubed on nearby walls at the hall in the village of Rasharkin.
Police are treating the matter as a sectarian hate crime.
The village hosted the north Antrim Twelfth parade yesterday.
In total, 43 lodges and 30 bands and Lambeg drums, drawn from five local districts, were on parade.
Local MP Jim Allister said those parading yesterday would not be deterred by the attack.
The PSNI received a report of criminal damage caused to the hall in the Main Street area of Rasharkin shortly after 1.20am yesterday morning.
Paint was thrown over the front of the building and graffiti daubed on walls opposite.
PSNI district commander for Causeway Coast and Glens Superintendent Sinead McIldowney said: “We are treating this criminal damage as a sectarian-motivated hate crime.
Damage
“The Police Service condemns all sectarian hate crime and criminal damage caused to any property is absolutely unacceptable.
“We will thoroughly investigate this, and would appeal to anyone with information to contact us on 101, quoting reference 177 of 12/07/25.”
Mr Allister, the TUV MP for North Antrim, slammed those behind the attack.
“The overnight sectarian attack on Rasharkin Orange Hall and the painting of terrorist slogans in the village, before it today hosts Twelfth celebrations, typifies the unbridled hatred of Orange and unionist culture that is designed to drive out its remaining Protestant residents,” he said.
“The local unionist community will nonetheless not be deterred by this latest manifestation of sectarian hatred.”
Loyalist band filmed singing 'The Sash' outside office of Sinn Féin MLA
Liam Tunney, Sunday Life, July 13th, 2025
Members of a loyalist band have been filmed breaking into a rendition of The Sash just yards from the office of a Sinn Fein MLA in north Belfast.
Footage of the incident appears to show members of the Rathcoole Protestant Boys band playing the song while on parade outside Gerry Kelly's office on the Antrim Road in Glengormley.
The band was among 40 on the parade, the return leg of which made its way along the road in the afternoon before dispersing at Cloughfern Protestant Hall.
On the Parades Commission website, the event is marked as 'sensitive' and a determination had been made on it beforehand.
Disruption
Representations had been made from residents in the Tober Glen and Colinbridge area, which is close to Mr Kelly's office, citing concerns over disruption and access for emergency services.
Organisers of the parade argued that marshalling would be in place and that efforts had been made to prevent the consumption of alcohol.
The commission imposed a number of conditions on the parade, including the prohibiting of undue stoppages or delays.
Bands were also ordered to “refrain from using words or behaviour which could reasonably be perceived as intentionally sectarian”.
“The commission reaffirms the importance of respectful behaviour, namely that there should be no singing, chanting or loud drumming and that marching would be dignified,” said the ruling.
Both Sinn Fein and the Parades Commission were approached for comment.
Drumcree Orangemen have run out of road
Ivan Little, Sunday Life, July 13th, 2025
I've as much chance of walking on water as Portadown Orangemen have of walking down the Garvaghy Road.
A week ago, the world's greatest optimists were at it again, expressing confidence they would complete the return journey from Drumcree Church to their hall in Portadown.
It's said that faith can move mountains, but somehow I don't think it will get the Orangemen down the hill.
Despite nearly 30 years of repeating the same mantra, the protest leaders sounded as if they really believed what they were saying.
I’ve known some of the Orangemen since I worked in Portadown a long time ago, and I appreciate they are totally ticked off with cynicism from outsiders like me who are convinced Drumcree is a dead duck (I'm expecting emails before the day is out).
riots
The pledges of 'no surrender' as police officers stopped members of the order and bands moving down the road may have come across as fire and brimstone in years gone by, but they've lost their import down the decades.
The violent actions that once spoke louder than the words of menace are gone, probably for good.
Several decades ago, the very mention of Drumcree could send fear coursing through the province's collective veins, with trouble erupting anywhere and everywhere.
No wonder hundreds of journalists from around the world visited Portadown to report on the thousands of Orangemen and their supporters threatening to breach the barriers blocking their way.
Broadcasting live at night from Drumcree as riots raged in the fields, there were times I was genuinely frightened Northern Ireland was on the brink of bedlam.
UTV teams used to hunker down overnight in comparative safety in caravans behind a house on the nationalist side of police lines.
Once our TV commitments were over, it was party time, with good food and good wine replacing the fear factor, at least for a couple of hours.
The camera operators had to take it in turns to stay on the alert, filming loyalists battling the security forces long and hard into the wee small hours.
This went on night after night, and the arrival of the likes of Billy Wright and Johnny Adair only made things worse.
Barricades
Venturing across the barricades and into the midst of the loyalists was dangerous because members of the press were seen as anti-Protestant and worthy of a kicking.
Self-professed victims' campaigner Willie Frazer offered himself up as a media minder, presumably for financial reward, though I never paid him.
Those who greased his palms were never hassled, and Frazer's late-in-life confessions about his involvement with terrorists explain why the paramilitaries listened to him.
Over the last few days and weeks, Orangemen have talked up their willingness to talk with Garvaghy Road groups, but the residents have shown no interest, which isn't exactly surprising.
They reckon they've won the battle of Drumcree, which the protesters will never admit is a lost cause because it would leave them out of step with other loyal orders.
I spent hours reporting on contentious parades in the likes of the lower Ormeau, Ardoyne Bellaghy, Dunloy and Newtownbutler, where loyalists said they would never bend the knee to the Parades Commission. But one by one, they saw the writing on the wall and agreed to re-routings.
In Derry/Londonderry, meanwhile, talks with residents and business groups produced results for the Apprentice Boys.
The Drumcree spat should have come to an end in 1998, when the three Quinn children were killed in an arson attack that many linked to the protests.
Orangemen denied any connection, but had they abandoned their campaign there and then, there would not have been another word about it.
DUP deputy mayor defends bandmates after parade assault in Glasgow
Ciaran Barnes, Sunday Life, July 13th, 2025
VIDEO SHOWING ELDERLY WOMAN THROWN TO THE GROUND NOT THE FULL STORY, SAYS HOEY
An elderly woman was assaulted as she tried to pass through a loyalist band parade next to DUP Deputy Mayor of Ballymena Tyler Hoey.
Mr Hoey, who was just yards from the incident which was caught on camera, told Sunday Life he was willing to make a statement to the police.
He said: “I would be more than happy to provide Police Scotland with a fuller picture of what occurred here because the video doesn't show the full story.
“I know others in the band and the lodge we accompanied would be happy to do likewise.”
There is no suggestion Mr Hoey was involved in the assault, which took place at a huge Orange Order parade through Glasgow city centre last weekend.
He was in Scotland with the Ballymena Protestant Boys flute band, of which he is a member. He is also in the Cloughfern Young Conquerors flute band, which is based in Newtownabbey and carries South East Antrim UDA banners.
Unsavoury
Footage taken in Glasgow shows an elderly couple trying to pass between members of Ballymena Protestant Boys. The woman is thrown to the ground, and her male companion is pushed off the road.
Mr Hoey said: “The two police officers who accompanied the band and lodge throughout the parade would obviously have useful information also.”
Loyalist sources told Sunday Life the incident was not the only unsavoury episode to occur in Glasgow.
“There were bandsmen from other bands kicked out of their hotel for being drunk and off their heads on drugs, although I have to say this didn't involve Tyler,” said our source.
“The behaviour by some of them throughout the day was disgraceful.”
Police Scotland is investigating incidents connected to last weekend's parades.
These include four loyalists being hit with airgun pellets in Glasgow city centre, and four arrests in Lanarkshire connected to disorderly behaviour and breach of the peace.
Mr Hoey, who became deputy mayor of Ballymena last month, has repeatedly refused to address concerns about his links to UDA-supporting bands and sectarian, racist comments.
As well as carrying UDA standards, the Cloughfern Young Conquerors wear UDA-style uniforms and commemorate murdered UDA leaders John 'Grugg' Gregg and Rab Carson.
Mr Hoey previously 'liked' a tweet posted on the anniversary of the Greysteel massacre, in which the UDA murdered six Catholics and two Protestants.
The comment praised the killers and described how they “trick or treated” their way into the Rising Sun pub before opening fire.
He also mocked the deaths of 39 Vietnamese immigrants found in the back of a lorry driven by Co Armagh man Maurice Robinson in 2019.
In a caption next to a photograph of a lorry trailer, Mr Hoey wrote: “Trailer for sale, serious offers only, sleeps 39 people.”
In another Facebook post, he described Covid-19 as “kung-flu” and accused Chinese people of eating bats. He also mocked transgender people.
The DUP previously said Mr Hoey had apologised for the posts.
Poisoning the Village's kids for this hollow victory is toxic logic
Suzanne Breen, Sunday Life, July 13th, 2025
Nowhere else on these islands would it be allowed to happen. A bonfire threatening the power supply to two hospitals is built on a site containing asbestos.
But this is Northern Ireland, where there is often an absence of leadership in politics and policing.
Those who were hot under the collar about Kneecap playing next month on the council-owned Boucher Road Playing Fields were cool, calm and collected about the risks the Village bonfire posed to public health.
And a police force which arrested a pensioner for putting a pro-Palestine sticker on a bank ATM wasn't prepared to intervene on this one.
There had never been a bonfire on this site before, so those who built it couldn't claim they were following in a long-established tradition.
Disturbing
Nobody was being denied their right to celebrate the Eleventh Night; there was another bonfire just a few streets away.
The argument that it was a UDA pyre, and the UVF had to have their own, is ridiculous.
It is impossible to see any reason for adhering to the selection of an asbestos-ridden site on the edge of the Westlink other than the fact that it's the perfect location to ensure those on the other side of the peaceline have full view of the pyre.
Yet the bonfire at Meridi Street was as dumb as it was disturbing. Asbestosis doesn't discriminate. Diseases don't care if you're Catholic or Protestant, unionist or nationalist.
It can take 20 or 30 years after exposure for symptoms to develop with this one. It starts with shortness of breath and a cough.
In the latter stages, sufferers experience severe respiratory distress and heart failure. Families describe horrifically painful deaths they say they wouldn't wish on their worst enemies. Children are most at risk from asbestos exposure.
The bonfire going ahead was not a defeat of the latte-drinking liberal elite, as some frame it. They don't live anywhere near the site.
It's those in the surrounding streets who are vulnerable to any toxins. If this is a victory for loyalism, it's a bizarre one: our revenge will be the poisoning of our children.
The Orange Order issued guidance on how to celebrate the Twelfth safely on a scorching hot day. Those taking part or spectating were urged to wear hats, high-factor suncream and sunglasses with UV protection.
It was recommended that they drink water regularly, and advice was offered that stationary cars can “get dangerously hot very quickly”.
Yet the organisation's grand secretary, the Rev Mervyn Gibson, told the BBC's Good Morning Ulster that people should “go and enjoy themselves” at the Meridi Street bonfire.
Northern Ireland Electricity had to put mitigations in place, including turning off transformers adjacent to the bonfire, building scaffolding with metal sheeting around the transformers, and placing steel plates on open cable ducts to reduce the risk of fire and damage.
Petrified
Belfast Trust's contingency measures for the hospitals included back-up generators.
Such plans should never have had to be made.
We've been here too many times before. Ten years ago, residents in Chobham Street in east Belfast were terrified their homes would go up in flames when a massive bonfire was built on waste ground just 30 feet away.
The land was owned by the then named Department for Regional Development (now Infrastructure), but it had ignored pleas for action.
The residents, petrified for their own safety and their homes, had numerous meetings with the department and the council which went nowhere.
City Hall ended up spending over £10,000 hoarding up the houses. It took six fire appliances and 35 firefighters to monitor the bonfire and hose down the properties.
A decade later, it's still the same old story. Collective blind eyes are turned and common sense goes up in smoke as we indulge insanity.
