Video Screengrab [The Scottish Sun/ Youtube]
CV NEWS FEED // During a Loyalist Remembrance Day march put on by a radical Protestant group known for partially instigating “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland, masked men guarded a local Catholic parish and forced the group to reroute.
The Daily Record explains that on November 10, during Scotland’s national day commemorating those who have fallen in battle, the Apprentice Boys of Derry (ADOB), a Protestant group that has historically initiated violence against Catholics, marched past two Catholic churches, St. Mary’s and St. Alphonsus, in Glasgow.
In 2018, a member of ADOB approached St. Alphonsus’s pastor, Fr. Tom White, while he was greeting parishioners after Mass. The man from ADOB, whom police later identified as Bradley Wallace, spat on Fr. White, and “subjected [Fr. White} to sectarian violence,” according to the Daily Record.
The group passed St. Alphonsus Church during Sunday Mass, and protestors stood outside the church with signs that said, “No anti-Catholic marches past Catholic churches.” Men wearing balaclavas also guarded the church. Police also ensured that parishioners could safely enter and exit the church.
The police had a “massive presence,” according to a spokesperson from St. Alphonsus, and decided to reroute the march due to safety concerns. However, the Apprentice Boys of Derry refused to reroute and engaged in a stand-off with the police.
The stand-off occurred at 11 a.m., which is the national moment of silence for all those who have fallen in battle. The spokesperson from St. Alphonsus observed that it occurred when “they [ADOB] are meant to be attending a service, observing a minute silence, and remembering those who gave their lives for their country.”
Fr. White heavily criticized Glasgow’s city council for approving the march’s route past St. Mary’s and St. Alphonsus. Glasgow police had advised the council to ban processions from passing the Catholic churches, but Glasgow City Council approved the route anyway.
“There has been no community engagement whatsoever as far as I am aware. I’d love to know how they evidenced this decision,” Fr. White stated.
“It certainly can’t have been by looking at the arrest figures for these events. Nor, can it have been by looking at the historical divisions caused by them either.”
According to the website Alpha History, in 1969, an Irish branch of ADOB ignored police warnings and marched through the largely Catholic area of Bogside, near Derry, Northern Ireland, eventually escalating into the riots known as the Battle of Bogside. These riots were one of many factors initiating “the Troubles” in Northern Ireland, a series of violent conflicts between Protestants and Catholics that lasted until 1998.
