Street protests sadly do not work because bad actors get involved

As I watched the events unfold last week in Washington I was reminded of a process I walked through myself closer to home.

I stood as a young lad with my parents at Carson statue as hundreds of thousands of unionists roared defiance at the proroguing of Stormont in 1972. From my memory we all walked home quietly down the Newtownards Road watching a parade of farmers on tractor departing too.

Fast forward to 1985 and I stood at Belfast City Hall with hundred of thousands of loyalists protesting the Anglo Irish agreement as Dr Ian Paisley made his famous ‘Never Never Never’ speech a group of ‘gather ups’ fought the police over the rooftops.

I was standing beside a polite elderly couple and another very pleasant family group from Londonderry.

When I arrived home the news headlines showed the shenanigans on the rooftops and equated it all to Paisley’s inflammatory rhetoric.

A Christian family were visiting us that night: they categorised everyone at the City Hall that day, including presumably myself, as ‘gather ups’.

Fast forward to 1986, the loyalist day of action that is when I believe the penny dropped with me that street protests were over for unionists.

There were always going to be bad actors attaching themselves to your peaceful protest, in spite of your wishes.

As I thought it out I recalled there was previously those organising civil rights marches with good intentions and others: less well intentioned organising a riot for after the event.

I can remember sitting on a train with Black Preceptory members, some of whom were having a little prayer meeting in the carriage; we were met at the station by the riot squad who were polite and not yet wearing their helmets;

The RUC knew that not everyone headed to Larne that Black Saturday was thinking about praying.

It is sad that peaceful protest is no longer a safe option.

On either side of the Atlantic I would be hard pushed to attend a protest these days. I certainly wouldn’t organise one!

Brian Gibson, Comber

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