July is the infamous marching season of the Orange Order in the six counties in Ireland's north still claimed by Britain. The Orange Order, a Protestant sect, is strongly "loyalist" (supporting British rule over the six counties) as well as anti-Catholic.
In the six counties, the Catholic population face discrimination and inequality. Support for British rule among the Protestant community is tied to the maintenance of Protestant privilege.
The Orange Order's annual marches are deliberately provocative, aiming to celebrate British rule and anti-Catholic bigotry. The parades lead up to July 12, the day that celebrates the Battle of the Boyne in 1690, in which the Protestant forces of William of Orange defeated Catholic opponents to win control of England. The marches and songs celebrate the massacre of Catholics.
The mainstream media reported on three days of riots by Irish nationalist youth after an Orange parade passed through the predominantly Catholic and nationalist North Belfast district of Ardoyne on July 13.
The preceding anti-Catholic violence and provocations have been ignored.
Republican party Sinn Fein blamed the Orange Order for the violence that exploded and called for the Orange parades to be re-routed so as not to pass through Catholic areas.
It also accused "dissident republican" group the Real IRA, which opposes the peace process in the six counties, for instigating the rioting, saying those who took part in rioting were from outside the community.
Sinn Fein is in a power-sharing executive with loyalist parties to help administer the governing of the six counties as part of a peace process that ended around three decades of armed conflict over British rule. It accused the Real IRA of seeking to undermine the peace process and the Orange Order of providing the excuse.
In a July 14 statement, socialist republican group Eirigi condemned the violence towards anti-march protesters by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI), which fired potentially lethal plastic bullets. Eirigi also denied accusations it was behind the rioting. It said the "violent response by some nationalist youths to yesterday's situation was as predictable as it was undesirable".
Eirigi said the actions of the PSNI revealed it was largely unreformed. Until 2001, the PSNI was the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The RUC was infamous for its brutality against the nationalist and Catholic community in the six counties, and for its ties to loyalist paramilitaries. Creating a new, reformed and non-sectarian police force is a key part of the peace process.
Eirigi said the PSNI's violence showed Sinn Fein's policy of taking part in the policing boards overseeing the PSNI had failed and called for Sinn Fein to withdraw.
The article below, by Laura Friel, is reprinted from Sinn Fein's newspaper, An Phoblacht, from July 9. It details the anti-Catholic and nationalist violence and provocations that have accompanied this year's "Orange Fest" marching season.
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Loyalist flags and bunting are nothing new. During the Orange marching season, streets in loyalist areas are often festooned with Union flags, loyal order flags and loyalist paramilitary flags as well as the ubiquitous red, white and blue bunting.
But this year we have witnessed what joint first minister Martin McGuinness, from Sinn Fein, has referred to as an outbreak of "flag flu".
Not only is there the usual cacophony of flags in loyalist areas in the run up to "The Twelfth", but also the erection of flags in mixed areas and attempts to put up flags in predominantly nationalist areas.
But what loyalists routinely describe as an expression of their cultural identity and exercise of their democratic right to celebrate that identity has a long and well-documented history as a mechanism of intimidation, intimidation that has often acted as a prelude to violence.
Violence and intimidation
In north Belfast, the erection of loyalist paramilitary flags near mixed areas has been accompanied by attacks on Catholic homes and the daubing of threatening sectarian graffiti warning Catholics residents to stay out of council-run parks.
In the early hours of July 4, a mob of about 15 loyalists rampaged through nationalist Alliance Avenue, smashing car windscreens and wing mirrors. They smashed the front windows of a house in Newington Avenue before fleeing.
A spokesperson for the local residents' group, Kevin Murphy, said people living there were worried the attack on their property was a prelude to something worse.
"This week is the mini-Twelfth and then we have the main Twelfth parades and residents are nervous about what could happen next. Could someone be attacked? Could someone be killed?
"There's a sense of fear."
Sectarian graffiti daubed on the walls of a north Belfast park announced "ATAT" (All Taigs Are Targets — "taigs" being an offensive term for Catholics) and "Warning all Taigs, use your own park".
The playing fields are located between the largely loyalist Shore Road area and the predominantly nationalist Antrim Road. The park is used by both communities.
In the centre of Glengormley, an Orange arch is festooned with Union flags. Up to 300 loyalist band supporters converged in Glengormley for the opening of the Orange arch and hurled sectarian abuse at children and young people playing football in the predominantly nationalist Church Road area.
Hundreds of flags have been placed in predominantly nationalist areas in south Belfast. The Ormeau Road and Finaghy crossroads areas have been overwhelmed with loyalist flags.
A spokesperson for the area, Vincent Parker, said most residents in Finaghy didn't want flags erected.
Shots were fired into a house in Ballymena after residents confronted loyalists erecting flags in a mixed housing estate in the Tullygarley area of the town.
Up to three shots were fired through the living-room window of a Protestant couple's home. No one was injured.
The shooting followed an approach by the woman to people putting up flags of the Apprentice Boys Protestant order and asked if they had sought the residents' permission. She told them they were in breach of an agreement concerning the flying of flags in Rossdale.
Increase
Across the six counties, nationalist and mixed residential areas have reported not only unprecedented increases in the number of unionist flags being erected but also the targeting of mixed and nationalist areas where none or very few have been erected before.
Last week, in Coleraine, there were disturbances after loyalists returned to the scene of the brutal sectarian murder of Catholic father Kevin McDaid and tried to erect paramilitary flags close to where he died and his grieving family live.
Nationalists don't object to unionist flags simply because they are a cultural expression of "Britishness", but because of their long association with anti-Irish and anti-Catholic hostility and violence.
Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams described racism and sectarianism as "two sides of the same coin" and urged "all of us in political and community leadership to stand up against the racists and the bigots who are trying to stir up racist and sectarian conflict".