Jeffrey Keating, a McNicholas High School teacher, is spending two weeks in Ireland. On July 5, he was an observer to the violence surrounding the Protestant parade in the Northern Ireland city of Portadown. He has since moved on to the village of Kiltimagh, birthplace of the late Archbishop John Timothy McNicholas. He filed this report by e-mail and plans to file more reports in the coming days.
BY JEFFREY KEATING
I have seen three days of mayhem in Portadown, Northern Ireland. One
wonders how there can be so much hostility in such a wonderful
environment.
Nevertheless, there has been incredible tension within the Catholic
community of the Garvaghy Road area.
Portadown is known to be have a
fiercely Loyalist population and their devotion borders on insanity, it
seems. On Sunday, as they moved up to the barbed wire surrounding
Garvaghy
Road, they loudly refered to the notorious sectarian murders carried out
on
Portadown Catholics. One group even simulated the recent stomping death
of
Robert Hamill. I looked quizzically their way and was called a "bloody
Fenian rat."
LATEST UPDATE
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Latest report on Northern Ireland violence by Associated Press
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At this point there is rioting throughout Northern Ireland and random
violence is the rule. I was advised to leave before the Loyalist rally in
the town center last night, as I am renting a car with Republic of
Ireland
license plates. With all the carjackings and sectarian hostility looming,
I
decided to go south to Kiltimagh, birthplace of Archbishop John
McNicholas.
Obviously, this humble village is a profound contrast to Portadown. As
the
days go by I hope for my own thoughts to be more fluid, and certainly
more
coherent. The computers in Kiltimagh are not under siege.
Until then: Think of the World!
Latest news from Northern Ireland by Associated Press
