Green v Orange: let’s try an exchange of colours

IRELAND cannot much longer afford the routine denigration of the Green and the Orange. Do we really want to humiliate Orangemen (or Sinn Féin for that matter) by insisting that their leaders condemn themselves and their supporters in front of the world?

For what purpose, and for whose benefit? There is a certain self-righteousness that amounts to a kind of bigotry in the willingness of politicians and commentators to identify the combatants in the Irish conflict as ‘sectarian bigots’ or ‘murderous thugs’.

The struggle between unionists and nationalists (or republicans) in the Six Counties has been one of the most protracted and bitter in the annals of European history. I have little doubt that, unchecked by decisive action of some kind, it has the potential to continue to the day of judgment.