That would be a parade then?

IT was not without a sense of the absurd that the consultation on a new body to replace the Parade’s Commission ended at a time when there were riots ostensibly about parades.

Said consultation ended with the Orange Order in a huff and rioters saying it was everybody’s fault except theirs for rioting.

Forgive us for being naïve, but we want to be clear on all this.

The Orange Order said the Parade’s Commission had to go. The reaction of some members of the Grand Lodge was yes, but no, but yes, but perhaps no to that new thingymabob that the DUP and Sinn Féin cooked up.

All rounded up with a maybe and we’ll see what else comes up and various slabbering on radio phone-ins.

And the feeder parade was allowed to pass the Ardoyne shops, but the Drumcree parade still got a no way!

The men and women happy to see children put in the front line of riots may, or may not have submitted a response to the consultation. But is seems that parades may have not been their first concern, otherwise the notion that civil disorder was about parades may have seen said civil disorder come to an end when the Twelfth had concluded.

Although it has to be said that the Belfast, Dublin train had to be stopped as it hadn’t the approval from the Parade’s Commission, and although it was using a traditional route, it was one that rioters felt compelled to stop…Parades Commission ruling notwithstanding

So, we think we’re clear now – The Orange Order isn’t sure what it wants, and the rioters are pretty sure they want; a riot but not too sure what the riot is about…