There was an odd juxtaposition of two reports in one of the Scottish Sunday newspapers yesterday. The first indicated the overwhelming support in the Scottish Parliament for buffer zones outside abortion clinics, wherein “pro-life” people would not be allowed to demonstrate. The second indicated that Glasgow City Council is not minded to support similar buffer zones outside Roman Catholic churches, wherein members of the Orange Order would not be able to march. I wondered what distinction was being made by our legislators and our city fathers, who chose to uphold the right to demonstrate in one case, but not in another.
(Incidentally, with respect to termination services, why not just absorb them within women’s health generally, and offer them within the gynaecology clinic? Nobody has a right to know why somebody is attending hospital. I suspect the answer is that the juxtaposition of women happy to bear a child, with those unhappy to find themselves pregnant, would be too hard to bear for both parties.)
But why this proposed curtailment of the right to demonstrate, either in front of clinics or churches? Perhaps the police have advised that one of these scenarios is just potentially too volatile. We know for example that “pro-choice” workers receive death threats in the United States; indeed some of them have been carried out. But this has not occurred on this side of the Pond, where the demonstrators are often characterised as grandads and grandmas, holding placards offering help, while silently praying. Many of these demonstrators, though not all, profess a religious faith, and indeed many of them are Roman Catholic…
…which takes us nicely to the other demo. Here, the marchers are Protestant, though the profession of a religious faith may be less obvious. The marches, in Glasgow, take one of several routes which seem to pass within sight, and sound, and often directly, by an inordinate number of Roman Catholic churches. These demonstrations are much larger than those taking place outside abortion clinics, needing a police presence, and they are certainly much louder, aided as they are by substantial bands of fifes and drums. By and large the marches take place peacefully enough, although there have been episodes of intimidation occasionally leading to violence.
In the Scotland of my childhood, you were expected to be either blue or green. I was brought up on the blue side of the tracks. My father was in the City of Glasgow Police. The police held their annual sports day in Ibrox, the home of Glasgow Rangers. I first attended a football match in Ibrox, when I was a child. My uncle lifted me over the turnstile. (For the record, Rangers beat Stirling Albion 4 – 1.) Many of my uncles were freemasons. They attended Burns suppers. I don’t think I knowingly met a Roman Catholic until I was about 12 years old. Then I met two cousins – an uncle had married a Roman Catholic girl; what a scandal that was.
This great sectarian divide dates back to ancient history – Luther’s 95 Theses and the Reformation, Mary Queen of Scots, James VI and I, the gunpowder plot (“Remember, remember…”), James II, William and Mary, the Battle of the Boyne… The Reformation was triggered by doctrinal differences, theological arguments, and perhaps more importantly, accusations of corruption. I think Luther thought the sale of indulgences was a scam. But I don’t suppose many of today’s Orange Order could discourse on a single Lutheran thesis, or upon the doctrine of transubstantiation. Yet the great divide remains. Not only ancient history, but also modern history, is seen through the prism of the sectarian schism. Many people regard the cause of Scottish Nationalism as a Popish Plot. Before the 2014 referendum, a very large Orange March took place in Edinburgh, which was largely an expression of Unionism. Many people went across from Glasgow to “the far east” to attend that rally. Edinburgh is often regarded by Glasgwegians as a kind of toffee-nosed little England, but in truth, Glasgow, the second city of empire, is less Scottish than Edinburgh, and far more “British”. I have a notion that when the Scottish football team lost 5 – 1 to Germany the other night, lots of Rangers supporters wouldn’t have been much bothered.
The championing of the ancient language of Gaelic is another Popish Plot, inspired by the Irish Republic. People write irate letters in to The Herald, expressing outrage that our road signs and our emergency vehicles should bear Gaelic names. The Northern Ireland Assembly was out of action for over two years, partly, and significantly, because Stormont couldn’t agree about support for Irish Gaelic.
For myself, I think people should stop beating the antique drum, and let it go. The trouble is that for many, the drum is not antique, and I suspect that is what underlies the difference in attitude of our representatives, and city fathers, with respect to abortion clinic and church buffer zones. Protestantism remains in the ascendancy.
jamescalumcampbell 