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WE ARE THE PEOPLE!

FOR NEARLY thirty years the Provisional IRA waged an imperialist and sectarian ‘hot war’ against the people and nation of Ulster. Republican death squads have killed thousands of people. Thousands more have been mutilated or horrifically injured.

For a variety of reasons, the Provos have halted their squalid ‘hot war’. The armed struggle is over - for the moment at least. They are now waging a cultural war of position – a new ‘cold war’. And the Loyal Orders – in particular the Orange Order – have been at the receiving end of this cold war.

The Provos see themselves as the cutting edge of a pan-Irish national chauvinist ‘broad front’. This includes Sinn Féin, the SDLP, Leinster House and some elements of the Catholic Church.

During the Provos ‘hot war’ all Prods were targets – especially those with security force connections. This new ‘cold war’ still targets Prods – especially those who enjoy any form of public cultural expression! Orange Halls have been destroyed. Lodges have been prevented from taking their traditional route to Church services. Individual Orangemen and women have been harassed by orangeophobic ‘demonstrators’. Parades Commission records on the organisers of Orange walks and loyalist band parades have ‘fallen into the hands’ of the IRA.

However, despite the lies, threats and intimidation from Provo hate mongers, Europe’s largest indigenous folk and cultural festival - the 12th July celebrations - still goes on. That’s why Sinn Féin haven’t let up in their campaign of lies and vilification of the Orange marchers, the bands and all those ordinary decent folk who go out to enjoy the colour and excitement of the day.

That’s why they focus in on minor incidents when some-one lets down his colours by bad behaviour. That’s why they blow up out of all proportion incidents of people drinking in the street, or urinating in garden hedges. They want to give the impression that this is a problem that needs to be eliminated - an evil nuisance that has to be stamped out.

Let’s not take this lying down. That’s what our little paper and this website’s all about. We need to focus on the real reasons for the Twelfth celebrations. We need to shout from the rooftops our commitment to celebration, not provocation or confrontation. Although we have been bombed, we have been shot at and we have been slandered, we are not defeated. We will not be defeated … We are the people and we're not going quietly away!

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