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On 25th September, Ulster's peace marchers came to Glasgow. They held a rally in George Square - one of a series planned for England and Scot- Tand. On a wet raining afteroon, the marchers sang hymns in George Square and listened to an address from Mairead Corrigan, The present Uister peace movement is the largest there has ever been. Despite its middle class leadership it has attracted many frustrated or frightened Irish people. It has acquired support in working class areas, whích predecessors never did. In the event the rally was attended by clergy men of various denominations and by about 1500 layfolk. This was a low turnout compared with the movements" previous rally in Liverpool. which attracted 5,000 people, and low indeed compared with the 30.000 which the Orange Walk can notch up.
There were two significant developments associated with the march. The first is the support which the march got from the Grand Orange Lodge in Scotland, which was declared a few days before the march. The second was the counter demonstration organised by Pastor Glass and the Twentieth Century Reformation Movement, protesting about the presence of Roman Catholic clergy on the march and demanding the excommunication of the IRA.
Pastor Glass and his cohorts are notorious for their intransigent and often lunatic opposition to the Church of Rome. Just the same, by the end of the march it was impossible to say whether they were protesting against Ms. Corrigan herself contributed to this impression when interviewed by STV the night before the rally. We want to live together in peace as Northern Irish people" she said. But the problem is that a large minority of the Northern Irish people the catholics - have never been left in peace because of the grossly undemocratic and sectarian structure of the Northern Irish statelet.
Can a movement which does not question this basic feature of Northern And could it not be that the ready Ireland put an end to sectarianism? assimilation of the Grand Orange Lodge and the Twentieth Century Reformation Movement owe more to the movement's Silence basic questions than to any sudden weaning of these bodies away from sectarianism?
MARTIN O'LEARY