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| -Signs, Portents, and the Weather- |
| Protestant leading St. Patrick's parade? |
| 2007-11-07 |
| The publisher of a local Irish newspaper is calling on the organizers of the city's annual St. Patrick's Day parade to begin overhauling the event's image by inviting Northern Ireland's Protestant leader to be a leader of next year's procession. Irish Voice publisher Niall O'Dowd said in interviews Tuesday and in an editorial to be published Wednesday that the parade could "symbolize a new era for hope" if it were led next March by Ian Paisley and his Catholic partner in the territory's new power-sharing government, the Sinn Fein deputy leader Martin McGuinness. The parade typically draws about 2 million spectators. Paisley, head of the Democratic Unionist Party, and McGuinness, a commander in the Irish Republican Army, were bitter enemies for decades but have been running Northern Ireland's cabinet together since May. Putting the two men at the head of the St. Patrick's Day march would send a message about peace, O'Dowd said, and simultaneously say something about the future of the parade, which has been beset in recent years by disputes about its inclusiveness. "I think people would be hugely impressed by it," O'Dowd said. "We need to take our head out of the 19th century here." The idea, which O'Dowd first broached publicly during an interview on WNYC Radio, was met with disdain by John Dunleavy, president of the parade's organizing committee. It would be inappropriate to put someone with a history of virulent anti-Catholicism at the head of a parade honoring a Catholic saint, he said. Paisley has been "a thorn in the side of the Catholic community in Northern Ireland" for many years, Dunleavy said. "If Ian Paisley wants to come out and march in the parade, he's welcome to do so," Dunleavy said, noting that nearly 160,000 people of varying faiths and backgrounds are expected to march in the procession. "But as a grand marshal? That's a totally different matter." Dunleavy also criticized O'Dowd for suggesting that the parade needs an image overhaul. "He forgets where he came from," he said. The parade's main organizer, the Ancient Order of Hibernians, has been criticized for more than a decade for refusing to allow gay groups to carry banners in the procession, a policy that Dunleavy said would continue this year. |
| Posted by:Anonymoose |
| #2 I never thought I'd see the day when Paisley and McGuiness jointly run N. Ireland. BTW, St Patrick is not seen as a catholic symbol in Ireland. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2007-11-07 18:54 |
| #1 If they're mor worried about banning gays from the parade, as it seems, than the Provos and IRA being in it together, then Ireland's northern counties are well on their way out of the troubles. |
| Posted by: OldSpook 2007-11-07 13:05 |