In this hurly burly modern world of ours it’s always good when communities stand up for the traditional way of doing things. In Italy people rebel against Mc Donalds by insisting on slow food. In Peru they clash with the state to protect their rights to live in the forest. In Belfast they keep alive the summer pogrom which dates back to at least the 1850s.
Yet even the best loved tradition has to evolve slightly. So where daddy, granddaddy and great great granddaddy used to go for Roman Catholics the modern Sammy goes for Roma and Romanians. If they are called that there must be some sort of connection. Like with paedophiles and paediatricians The good thing about them is that they have darker skin than the average Belfast papist and even if they don’t bend the knee to the Roman anti-Christ their religious practices are distinctly unCalvinist.
Loyal Belfast is a technicolor treat at this time of year. Union Jacks, “Ulster” flags and Scottish Saltires are everywhere. In some places the flag of the Israeli state adds a nice cosmopolitan touch. Sales of cider and lager help insulate local retailers from the worst of the recession and groups of young men begin knocking on doors asking for old furniture, wooden pallets, effigies of the Pope and Irish flags to put on the bonfire. It used to be called the 12th of July but it’s being rebranded as “Orange Fest”, the cross community festival where you’re not welcome unless you have a fervent belief in the supremacy of Protestant Ulster.
Any idiot with half a brain knows that the attacks against Romanians in Belfast must have been committed with the express consent of one of the loyalist gangster organisations. Most likely the UDA. They control the drug trade, prostitution and protection rackets in the area. The overlap between their membership and the local drunken racist criminals is substantial, although these will not necessarily be the one whose names appear on the grant applications for the funding which the British state uses to pay them off. The loyalist gangster mobs have a record of organising and supporting sectarian attacks going back to 1969. Not too many Belfast Fenians are desperate or daft or enough to live in areas under their control but the new migrants would not have that local knowledge and now they are paying the price for it.
A starting point for opposing racism in the north of Ireland is having something nasty to say about loyalism.
Liam redux 
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