IRISH CONFLICT -- Seamus Heaney, born in Derry in 1939, a Catholic wrote: "Religion's never mentioned here," of course. "You know them by their eyes," and hold your tongue. "One side's as bad as the other," never worse. Christ, it's near time that some small leak was sprung In the great dykes the Dutchman made To dam the dangerous tide that followed Seamus. Yet for all this art and sedentary trade I am incapable. The famous Northern reticence, the tight gag of place And times; yes, yes. Of the "wee six" I sing Where to be saved you only must save face And whatever you say, you say nothing." There is a marvelous photo of three generations of the same family (surname not given) showing off their Lambeg drums in Ballymena in the early 1980s in "The Irish Century, A Photographic History of the Last Hundred Years," Michael MacCarthy Morrogh , pub. 1998. If this sounds like it might have been your Orange Order family, you might want to chase down a copy of the book. The fringed sashes indicate to which lodge of the Order they belong. Orange parades used to be tolerated by most Catholics, even enjoyed as something to brighten the often dull Ulster summers. But after 1970 they became unloved symbols of oppression. Broadly expressed, unionists believed their duty was to protect the British heritage in north-east Ireland and that had to mean no concessions to the Catholic minority . Should they let slip their vigilance, and allow Catholic nationalists power in whatever sphere, then the state could be threatened. Hence the emotive slogans from the 17th century and later: "No Surrender!" "Not an Inch!" "Ulster is British!" "No Pope Here." (Spotted on a wall in Belfast in 1976, that last cry had an additional graffito below it: "Lucky Old Pope!") It was assumed, with some justification, that most Catholics were nationalists; and also, with less justification, that none of them could be trusted with positions of responsibility. Hence the discrimination against the minority. In part this came about from a genuine dislike and fear of Catholicism from the Northern Protestants, many of them Presbyterians and traditionally hostile to Romish customs. A BBC interviewer in 1970: "What ! do you have against Roman Catholics?" Belfast Protestant, "Are you daft? Why their religion, of course." But the usual line was that the Catholics were consitutionally disloyal and hence traitors to the state. "Catholics were out to destory Ulster with all their might and power," said Sir Basil Brooke in 1933. He went on to advise giving employment only to Protestants." "I feel I can speak freely on this subject as I have not had a Roman Catholic about my own place... I would appeal to loyalists therefore, wherever possible, to employ good Protestant lads and lassies." Discimination undoubtedly operated, but in a far more mild and covert way than racial legislation in other countries. Comparisons with apartheid are inappropriate. Many Catholics, however, did find themselves disadvantaged at a local level. No surprise then that housing and jobs tended to go to the Protestants. Besides some local government jobs, Catholics quickly learnt there was little point in ap! plying for work with some private businesses, even giant concerns such as Short Brothers (the aircraft manufacturers in Belfast, at the forefront of technology having built the world's first jet), or Harland and Wolff, the Belfast shipbuilders who built the "Titanic." Those who did get posts found promotion hard or impossible. Denis Donoghue writes about his father, a sergeant in the RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary) between the wars, who could not be promoted. "He was not a Protestant, therefore he was not a Unionist, therefore he was not a member of the Loyal Order of Orangement..." Donaghue also claims that, as a boy living in Warrenport, in Northern Ireland, he was able to spot a Protestant at a hundred yards. "In the North a Protestant walks with an air of possession and authority, regardless of his social class. He walks as if he owns the place, which indeed he does." Seamus Heaney wrote: "Smoke-signals are loud-mouthed compared with us: Manoeuvrings to find out name and school, Subtle discrimination by addresses With hardly an exception to the rule That Norman, Ken and Sidney signalled Prod And Seamus (calle me Sean) was sure-fire Pape. O land of password, handgrip, wink and nod, Of open minds as open as a trap...: A factor for change was the growth of the Catholic middle class, or at least those who had taken advantage of the educational opportunities since the Butler Act of 1944. Many who were at university in the 1960s looked about them and instead of treating discrimination simply as the way things were, as their parents might have done, determined to alter matters. In this they were encouraged by the mood amongst young people in the West during that decade, especially the Civil Rights campaign in America. The example had proved that peaceful agitation, protest marches, civil disobedience and the like could destory an old repressive system. Suddenly unionist policies which in previous decades might have been swallowed were no longer accepted with resignation by the minority. Things got totally out of hand... Painful images of war -- A young boy wearing an IRA beret stands guard by the open coffin of Jospeh McGann a top IRA man reported by his own to have killed 15 British soldiers. In 1972 he failed to stop at a checkpoint and died as he had lived. For a whole generation of children the Emergency had been their only experience of life. Ethnic cleansing, with Catholic families burnt or frightened out of their home by Protestant neighbours. It estimated that 60,000 were forced out of their homes between 1969 and 1972, some 80 percent of them Catholics. Protestants have been subjected to the same treatment. There is no originality in tribal warfare! .