Drumcree, beneath the noise, is now a very simple issue.
Portadown District won, for the first time in 28 years, the legal right to walk their traditional route. Something no one ever believed possible; but, in truth, it was always not only possible but the correct legal outcome.
That legal right is being impeded by an unlawful mob.
It is for the State to determine whether the rule of law or the rule of the republican mob applies. Thus far, the State has wilted in front of the nationalist/republican mob, who continue to defy the Chief Constable.
They stand in defiance of the Judiciary (but then have the cheek to want to use the judiciary to seek reward for their illegality and defiance- good luck with that).
What is clear, for everyone to now see, is that the entire political process is built upon a nationalist supremacy which operates on the basis that ‘unionism must give, and nationalism must get’. So deeply engrained is that ethos, that nationalists no longer even realise just how supremacist and absurd it is.
There are some who say ‘you’ve won the legal right, don’t exercise it’, but once again that is unionism giving, and nationalism getting. If we continue in that cycle, of appeasement and ‘moral high ground surrender’, then what happens when we’ve nothing left to give? Which, in my view, was a point reached long ago.
If the Government and PSNI have lost control of Northern Ireland to the nationalist/republican mob, and in particular Sinn Fein openly defying the law, then come out and say that, and bear the political and societal cost.
Our community won’t be doing it for you. We won’t be giving up our legal rights.
A thirty year terrorist campaign couldn’t shift us, and all sides would do well to remember that.
The law is clear. It must be applied. Nothing less will do.