The following article by Ernest Walker was first published in Unity, the weekly paper of the Irish Communist Party.
IT is said that truth is the first casualty of war but you don't need war to stretch or distort the truth. We have just past the commemoration of the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 which as we know is very much a part of the Protestant culture here and is seen by some as a victory of the Protestant faith over the Catholics one. However, it could be seen as somewhat different to that interpretation. Whilst religion obviously played a role we cannot ignore the politics involved. It could even be described as a bit of a family feud as Catholic King James was the father in-law of the Protestant William of Orange since he married his daughter Mary. James was also his uncle so the family ties are there for all to see.
The politics come into it when the Pope at the time, Alexander the VIII, who was at loggerheads with the Catholic French King Louis-actually financed William's campaign and went on to say a Te Deum when he learned of William's victory. The distortion comes in when it is seen solely as a religious matter Protestant versus Catholics hence the kick the Pope songs that are sung. The truth is that those who see it that way are basically the victims of deception but of course it suits some who prefer to see it in that vein anyway. Those of us who view politics from a class position would recognise this as a way of dividing working class people which only benefits the real enemy-the ruling class who are adept at practising their form of class politics whilst ensuring us that the issue of class really doesn't exist.
It goes without saying that those politicians who presided over this deception, and we do not have to name them, were responsible, for acts of massive religious discrimination.
We have also just passed another anniversary, that of ten years since the EU referendum which led to Brexit. Another campaign that saw the truth compromised. Those of us on the Left whose analysis of the European Union was again from a class position were tarred with the same brush as the right-wing Brexiteers whose stance was based on pure nationalism.
Of course this suited the pro-EU crowd as they didn't have to justify their stance on the EU, which some found difficult to do. They simply pointed the finger at some of the right wing individuals arguing against the EU and to be fair you couldn't blame them. Those of us who believed in what became known as Lexit-the left wing view were totally ignored by the media. In its editorial of the 17th July the Irish News made reference to a report by two outfits Best for Britain and Frontier Economics which basically called for the UK to renew its membership of the EU and claimed that Northern Ireland would benefit to the tune of £150 million annually.
The Irish New admitted that the report "will inevitably be dismissed because of its source." Quite right as we have pointed out in this weeks editorial, both these organisations are pro-EU so are not what you might call independent. After the EU referendum vote we were bombarded with claims that the North was 'dragged out' of the EU against the peoples wished.
We had to point out that it was a UK wide referendum not a regional one. The Irish News claimed that a "clear majority" had voted Remain but the actual voting figures were: Electoral register at the time-2,260.988. Of those 789.879/67% voted. Of these 4400.437 voted Remain-349.442 voted Leave. However 471.109 abstained. A majority of those who voted were Remain but whichever way you look at it the figures hardly show a "clear majority". So is it a case of stretching the truth a wee bit?"