The great divide ...wider than ever?

They call it Scotland’s Shame but for many it’s a west of Scotland – and particularly Glasgow – problem. Sectarianism has, over the generations, waxed and waned in line with attitudes and the political mood. But where is sectarianism today – and to what e

SIX months ago a respected priest described how he was spat on and threatened during an Orange parade in Glasgow, outside his church, St Alphonsus.

For many this single event marked a watershed. The case, they said, was the tip of the iceberg, evidence of routine intimidation of Catholics when Protestant loyal orders march though the city.

For others, it was a rarity, an anomaly. For them, Orangism is a fading and increasingly irrelevant force in Scottish life. But one that, desperate to keep marching, albeit in smaller numbers, had sought to clean up its act.

Following the alleged assault on Canon Tom White – a man has been charged – there is a new mood of “enough is enough” among some churchgoers and their clergy.

But this has provoked a robust response. The Orange Order and similar groups have dubbed any restrictions on where they can march as the introduction of “religious no-go areas”.

So there are those who insist loyal orders have the right to march past churches and those who insist they do not.

Local authorities since this summer have ordered five Orange or loyal parades to be rerouted, away from Canon White’s churches in the city’s Calton neighbourhood. That is a tiny proportional of the 317 events – by all groups, not just loyalist or Orange ones – notified in Glasgow so far this year.

But some Orange groups were appalled. Restrictions, they say, are an infringement of their human rights. Some point out that Glasgow City Council is now run by the SNP – a party whose core aim of Scottish sovereignty is completely at odds of the wider Orange Order’s commitment to the British union and crown.

Loyalists, Orangemen, who once referred to themselves as “the people”, now increasingly talk about being “a people”, a constituent part of a wider community. Some have even come to think of themselves as a people who can be the victims of Government or local government bias.

Susan Aitken, the SNP leader of the council, had set out her position in The Herald after St Alphonsus. “There is a growing public mood that we’ve reached tipping point with behaviours associated with this type of event.

“The Orange Order, its individual districts and lodges, and other Loyal Orders may want to ask themselves what message the attitudes of those aligning themselves with their events send out about Scotland, about Glasgow and indeed about themselves and their proclaimed values.”

She added: “Official participants may not be involved in sectarian and anti-social incidents around parades but it’s simply not enough to absolve themselves by pointing to hangers-on. They need to step up and take wider responsibility for those they attract and refer to as their wider support and networks when it suits. What happens on your watch happens on your watch.”

This did not go down well with the Orange Order, despite its own previous concerns about what it calls the “long tail” on its parades, the followers rather than participants who are far more likely than its marshalled marchers to get into trouble.

Last month, the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland published an article on its website asking if there was a “sectarian agenda at the heart of Glasgow SNP”.

It said: “Something is happening in Glasgow, and it seems the nationalists are at the core of the troubles. A dangerous alliance is forming to work against Protestant Orangemen and hidden hatred seems to now be crossing over into blatant bigotry.”

Sectarianism watchers are getting nervous about some of the rhetoric from marchers and those who oppose them.

There are whispered concerns about next year’s marching season. No-one fears a Northern Ireland standoff of the kind seen, most famously, in Drumcree. But there are concerns about increasingly entrenched positions as marching politics bleeds into what one expert called “ethno-religious tribalism and identity politics”.

Last month, on a Saturday when the council was closed, a group, almost all men, unfurled a banner which read “Scottish Protestants Against Discrimination – Equal rights for all” outside Glasgow City Chambers. Small in number, but vocal, they asked if there was an “SNP agenda against the Protestant peoples of Glasgow”.

Flying saltires fringed with gold and union flags, they made their stand.

“We have assembled here today to highlight a clearly discriminatory situation that has arisen here in Glasgow under the current SNP-led administration,” said a spokesman. “Glasgow is a city worldfamous for its cultural diversity. Yet in the 21st century equality for all seems to be more of a luxury afforded by some rather than a basic human right.”

He added: “Simply by the fact we follow a particular belief we are told we cannot be given the same rights as other members of the community. We are being told we cannot walk the same streets that others can pass along without being inhibited.

“We have been vilified for celebrating our culture while others are encouraged to do so freely.”