Protestant cleric attacks invite to Orangemen

A CHURCH of Ireland clergyman, who was driven from his Northern home, has said Orange zealots should be banned from taking part in Cork’s St Patrick’s Day parade.

The award winning peace activist, the Reverend David Armstrong, based at St Mary’s Church in Carrigaline Union, Co Cork, said “this tribe of bigots” has nothing to offer the people of Cork.

He expressed his utter dismay that members of the Orange Order from the North had been invited to take part in Cork’s special City of Culture parade.

“I fear that ordinary decent Catholic people in the North will see Cork open its doors for this tribe of bigots to march through their streets,” he said.

He made his comments as the row over the Cork 2005 invitation to the Orange Order to take part in the parade took a sinister twist.

A threatening phone call was made to a person connected to the parade’s organising committee yesterday. An anonymous male caller said: “Be careful. We know what you’re planning.” He then hung up.

The person who took the call was extremely shaken afterwards and reported the incident to gardaí.

Youth group leaders, whose members are taking part in the parade, also indicated they have serious safety and security concerns if the Orange Order marches in the city on March 17.

Parade director Dara McClatchie met representatives of 15 Northern-based groups - including the Orange Order - who have been invited to take part in the parade yesterday. She was unavailable for comment last night.

Rev Armstrong said he decided to speak out to “keep clear blue water between Orange Order behaviour and what I believe”.

Rev Armstrong, his wife June, and their children, Sarah and Mark, were forced to flee their home in Limavaddy, Co Derry, in the Eighties after extending the hand of friendship to Catholic neighbours.

They lived across the road from a Catholic Church which was bombed in 1985. Rev Armstrong publicly criticised the attack.

“Threats came along. The bible was quoted to me by men in bowler hats who said this was God’s work,” he said.

He faced down further threats and attended the church reopening.

He then invited the Catholic parish priest, Fr Kevin Mullen, to speak in his church on Christmas Day.

“I went through hell afterwards. The abuse towards my family was disgusting.”

Rev Armstrong said he received a coffin with his name on the plate, that wreaths were laid at his door and that his children’s lives were threatened.