Politicians have failed and the real patriots of Markethill are all that Ulster has now got

Once again Markethill has set the tone for the rest of Ulster. A small town in South Armagh that few have heard of, but is throwing down the gauntlet, and setting the tone for all of us.

It invites a comparison with events that led to the Alamo. No-one had heard of the Alamo until the siege, but it has been written into American folklore.

I remind you that people of Ulster descent played a leading part in this resistance – Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett and Sam Houston.

Like the men of the Alamo the Markethill faithful are surrounded, but on a dreadful winter night they turned out to register defiance. They are in desperate need of reinforcements, and if we fail to provide backup, make no mistake, these men, and women, are going down: and we’ll all go down with them!

The storm clouds are ominous. The politicians have failed, the churches are failing, and the loyal orders are weak. We should be under no illusion, these patriots are all we’ve got. If their resistance is crushed there will be no way back.

The powers that be know that, and will pull out all the stops to discredit them. To this end they will use the media, and collaborators within our own ranks. They will wheel out their big guns to silence them.

Markethill is sounding the last post, pray God someone will hear it. Like the Alamo these patriots are writing their own page in history. If there is any justice it will be recorded in our folklore, and become the symbol of Ulster’s resistance.

They turned out in atrocious conditions to register defiance, and fire a warning shot across the bows of those who thought they would go quietly. They won’t go quietly, they won’t go cheap, and they won’t go! The EU and the British government should take note.

This small remnant are the real patriots, prepared to put their necks on the line, for us. It is often an insignificant event that changes the course of Irish history.

More than anyone, our Irish nationalist neighbours and friends should know that, and take note. They know from their own history, that courage takes time to bed down, and work out.

If the Protestant community don’t see, and understand, what is happening in Markethill, and it doesn’t inspire them, then we really are lost, and don’t deserve to survive. I salute them, and pray their sacrifice is not in vain.

I hope Irish nationalism will forgive me for borrowing this line: ‘a terrible beauty is born’.

Clive Maxwell, Bleary

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