Nationalist residents from a north Antrim village who faced major Orange Order protests in the 1990s told then minister for foreign affairs, Dick Spring, in 1997 that they “felt a sense of ease” when they travelled to Dublin.
Members of the Orange Order traditionally met at the Orange Hall in Dunloy and paraded on the main street before leaving for Derry to take part in the Apprentice Boys’ march there every August.
In 1996 a local protest prevented the Orangemen marching before leaving for Derry, so more than 1,500 Apprentice Boys and supporters returned that evening determined to do so. The night ended in confrontation.
In May 1997 three members of the Dunloy Parents and Residents’ Association – Anna Martin, Paddy O’Kane and Frank Dillon – met privately with Dick Spring in Dublin.
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Nationalists feel ‘sense of ease’ when they travel south, Dick Spring told
Entering Government Buildings, Martin remarked “on the sense of ease which they always experienced coming South”, since they “lived constantly with a personal tension generated by the conflict”.
They realised the effect upon themselves only when they left Northern Ireland, they told the tánaiste and minister, when they met to discuss that year’s marching season.
“Indeed, their courtesy and candour reflect their general ease,” records a Foreign Affairs note of the meeting, with the conversation flowing “easily into Gaelic football, hurling and horse breeding”.
The meeting felt like “a normal constituency meeting rather than one with a delegation from a small and vulnerable north Antrim town in the heartland of loyalist bigots”, the note goes on.
The delegation outlined “the history of sectarian abuse suffered by the village which is all but 100 per cent nationalist over the years and the oppressive RUC presence mounted to force parades through”.
The number of parades had increased substantially over the years, with 14 taking place in one year alone. More than 80 Land Rovers and 375 RUC officers were deployed during one march, they complained.
Despite this, they said they had wanted to reach an agreement with the Orange Order, but it had been “wrecked” by three people, including Democratic Unionist Ian Paisley jnr and former rugby international David Tweed.
Tweed was later convicted of child sex abuse and served four years in jail, though his conviction was subsequently overturned. He died in a motorcycle crash in Co Antrim in 2021.
Recounting the experience of the year before, the delegation said “22 busloads of Apprentice Boys returning from Derry” had tried to “invade the village” in “a terrifying evening”.
Urgent calls were made that night to the Department of Foreign Affairs by the locals, though RUC reinforcements “possibly coincidentally withstood the attempt by the drunken mob to break through”.
Expressing fears about an Apprentice Boys march due to take place within weeks of meeting, the delegation feared that the Democratic Unionist Party would deliberately “build up tensions” ahead of elections.
Replying to the Dunloy residents, Mr Spring conveyed his “disappointment” that a deal about Dunloy parades that had been so close “was effectively sabotaged by the hardliners”.
