I love benches.
I like to spend as much time as I can
outdoors. Now in case I give the wrong impression let me make it clear that I
am not all the time walking or hiking. I do do that sometimes but mostly I just
sit. That’s why I like benches. I have one I inherited from our old neighbour
Billy McCulloch. Truth to tell I inherited only the metal ends. The wooden
stays had long ago given up. Billy was a great wee man. A lover of poetry. The
lads in the Mens’ Shed in Cooley fixed his bench for me. I
celebrate Billy’s friendship by sitting on his bench and raising a glass to his
memory. Then I read aloud a poem. One of Seamus Heaney’s or Patrick
Kavanagh’s. So that bench to me will always be Wee Billy’s bench.
The late great Desi Ferguson made me
a magnificent bench. Des was a mighty worker with wood as well as a great
footballer and a lovely hurler. And a great friend. His bench is
mighty. He made me other pieces of wooden furniture. Martin McGuinness
also benefitted from Des’s generosity and his wood working skills. Des’s bench
will last longer than me. It outlasted Des. And Martin. It is constructed from
old hard wood and it is shaped to allow the sitter maximum comfort. The arms
also are constructed to allow you to set a glass or a plate beside you. They
widen out. Handy. I think of Des often but feel especially close to him when I
am seated in the bench he made especially for me. Go raibh maith
agat Des.
I think there should be benches in
all our public spaces. In the Falls Park some benches are dedicated
to local people. That’s a nice idea. There are good benches in the City
Cemetery also. But only at the front. Why not at the back? And why
not outside it? There are none at all in Milltown I note. Why
not?
Decades ago when our community set
out to reclaim our public spaces some people understandably were concerned that
these revamped areas would be overrun by anti social elements. Others felt that
we could not let this determine how we live. That was my view also. We
needed strategies and resources to address anti social behaviour and many good
people do this in multiple ways. From Féile, to numerous youth initiatives, our
local schools, multiple sporting groups, a brilliant community and voluntary
sector. We are blessed with good people.
And in the meantime our civic space
increases from the new walk ways on the mountain, to Colin Glen, the Bog
Meadows, Dam on the Springfield Road, the wonderful Dunville and Falls
Parks, new Greenways, Casement and the upcoming development of that
part of the district. The revamped Saint Comgall’s. The front of Coláiste
Feirste. Our mountain trails would benefit greatly from a few
strategically place discreet benches. Not all of us can hunker down in the
heather. The views are magnificent. Imagine sitting there in comfort above it
all. On a nice bench. Looking over to Scotland and Strangford. Or Lough Neagh.
And the Sperrins. Or the Mournes.
It’s also great to see the many
coffee shops and other wee eateries with their pavement tables and chairs being
well used in this good weather. Though I note a number of shabby derelict shops
in marked contrast to our new prize winning architecture. But I’m
sure that these too will be sorted out in the time ahead.
In the meantime let’s dot our
streetscapes with benches. A community bench is a very democratic civic
essential. It encourages people to get out in the knowledge that they will have
a place to sit if the notion or the need takes them. It becomes a focal
point for pedestrians to take a wee rest and watch the world go by or if the
mood takes them to have a yarn with other citizens. Bí do shui agus lig do
scith.
For example the bottom of the
Whiterock Road where it joins the Falls’ is perfect for a bench.
And up above Connolly House at The
Busy Bee? Surely space for a few benches? And throughout our neighbourhoods.
Little civic spaces. Wee community gardens. Community benches.
Controversy, sectarian threats and
violence have long been associated with the 11 July bonfires and the marching
season. ‘Kick the Pope’ bands and sectarian hate music and songs are a regular
feature of many loyal order parades. This year yet again election posters of
Sinn Féin, SDLP and Alliance representatives competed with each other for space
on bonfires. Effigies of Mary Lou McDonald, Michelle O’Neill and Naoimi Long
were hung from makeshift gallows. Sectarian, misogynistic and abusive slogans
were nailed to bonfires. Among them; ‘KAT – Kill all Taigs,’ ‘All Taigs are
targets’.
This year also a young man in Larne fell to his death as the bonfire
builders competed with each other over who could build the biggest and the
highest.
This aspect of what unionism
euphemistically describes as ‘culture’ can be traced back at least 200 years.
The Orange Order was established to defend British interests and British
domination in Ireland. Andrew Boyd’s seminal book – ‘Holy War in Belfast’ – and
Michael Farrell’s ‘Orange State’ are among those which record the use of
sectarianism by the British state and the unionist political elite to maintain
their supremacy in the 19th and 20thcenturies.
Sectarian riots and pogroms were a
familiar pattern in Belfast during this period. Effigies also played their
part. Lundy or an effigy of him is burned every year in Derry as part of the
Lundy’s Day parade to mark the 1688 Siege of Derry. Lundy was the governor of
Derry who offered to surrender but was thwarted when the apprentice boys locked
the city gates.
One of the worst examples of
prolonged sectarian violence occurred in August 1864 when loyalists burned an
effigy of Daniel O’Connell on the Boyne Bridge between Durham Street and Sandy
Row and then attacked the Catholic Pound area in the Falls area. In the days of
violence across Belfast that followed 11 died and hundreds were injured. Over
800 families were forced to flee their homes and 247 dwellings were
destroyed.
Despite the sectarianism that
surrounds the July bonfires there are those in the media and within political
unionism who insist it’s not threatening but part of the cultural tradition of
unionism. If similar effigies and slogans against people of colour or Muslims
or Jews were to appear in any other state within the European Union or in the
USA or indeed in Britain they would immediately be labelled as hate crime and
action taken to remove them and to hold those responsible legally accountable.
Not here.
Instead we have the PSNI and
prosecution service failing to stand up to this behaviour. No action taken to
remove the offending material. No action taken to dismantle bonfires that carry
this material. And little prospect of charges for hate crime being taken in the
time ahead. I have personal experience of this. In the past I have made
complaints about sectarian threats made against me. I understand the frustration
that many now feel following another July bonfire period. It is unacceptable.
Let the Twelfth be celebrated. The Orange tradition is part of what we are. But
the unacceptable excesses around the bonfires, the sectarian chants or songs,
and some of the locations and size of the bonfires cannot be tolerated.
If we are to build a better future
there can be no place for sectarianism – no matter who is responsible. The Good
Friday Agreement clearly states that citizens have the right to ‘freedom from sectarian harassment.’ We have to make this core principle a reality by enshrining into
law an effective legal definition of sectarianism with legal sanctions and
robust incitement to hatred provisions. Those who use effigies and slogans and
posters as symbols of hate must know without a doubt that they will be
prosecuted. And if anyone wants to build a bonfire there should be rules and
regulations governing where and when and how high.
In the new Ireland there will be a
place for the Orange. Marches and bonfires will be part of that. But there can
be no tolerance of sectarianism and hate from wherever it comes.
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