If I could pick only one specific moment that personified to me the 30-odd years that have been called 'the Troubles' in the north of Ireland, this one would be it.

I research a lot of data on a lot of subjects and have done that over a number of years, but this incident stands out as the moment I knew which side of this conflict contained moral right.

Imagine you are living in a country where practically you can only live in a particular area for physical safety and you are raising your family in an area in which they are treated as second-class citizens. Imagine that during a specific time of year annually the majority population rampages down the street they consigned you to live and beats up you and your neighbors randomly and lights fire to your home. Imagine this group has full police support and that some of these thugs are, in fact, 'your' police. Imagine they throw a petrol bomb into your home and your three small children are burned alive while the fire department and the police stand by laughing. Imagine there is nowhere to turn for justice, because the people who just did that are, at least in part, your government and the rest are protected by that government.

I knew at the moment I read about the Quinn's that there was only one right side in the north of Ireland and nothing I have researched since has done anything but reinforce that belief. With a government like that, who wouldn't need a defending army? The most recent news is just a bunch of more of the same. The only surprising thing is that anyone will even admit to the collusion, but it doesn't matter as nothing will be done about it anyway.

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http://www.garvaghyroad.org/background.htm

"Portadown has a conspicuous place in the history of Protestant militancy. The Orange Order was founded in the town of Portadown in 1795, an offshoot of a Protestant terrorist group known as the Peep O'Day Boys, named for their practice of attacking Catholics at dawn. The Orange Order professed loyalty to the memory of the English Protestant king William of Orange, but its main activities were "wrecking," a term for the often fatal attacks on Catholics and the wanton destruction of their homes and businesses. This campaign of sectarian violence was so widespread that in 1795 a British Parliamentarian warned of a "general extermination" of Catholics in the Portadown area, and Parliament tried to ban the Protestant vigilantes several times during the nineteenth century. Since then, the Orange Order has acquired a degree of respectability. Today, many leaders in unionist politics and in the RUC are members of the Orange Order.

In the confusion of religion and politics that marks the loyal orders, the Drumcree Church's significance derives from the role it played in the founding ceremonies of the Orange Order. For nearly two centuries, the Orange Order marched home from its pilgrimages to Drumcree by way of Obins Street, at the edge of Portadown's Catholic enclave. In fact, the loyal orders paraded through Obins Street dozens of times each marching season, sometimes several times a day. Murders, beatings, and the "wrecking" of Catholic homes and businesses were routine. Catholics lived in a ghetto with two main streets: Obins Street, narrow and old, and Garvaghy Road, a wider and newer thoroughfare bisecting the eight housing estates where most of the town's 6000 Catholics now live. Catholics remain a vulnerable minority in Portadown's overall population of about 18,000..."

http://www.garvaghyroad.org/fact-sheet.htm

"In Portadown, Catholics/Nationalists only feel secure within their own area. Over the years, many have been murdered by pro-British Loyalist death-squads. Jack McCabe, Felix Hughes, Eamon McMahon, Joey Weir, Martin McConville, Robert Hamill, Thomas Trainer, Dennis Kelly and Adrian Lamph are all Catholics who have died horrific deaths at the hands of Loyalists in the area of the main commercial town centre alone. Many other Catholics have been severely assaulted and wounded in the same area while going about their normal everyday activities."

...

"Robert Hamill was murdered by a lynch mob of up to thirty Loyalists while returning from a night out with two female relatives in April 1997. A major controversy still surrounds his brutal death as it was revealed that members of the RUC (police force) were present when the attack took place but refused to intervene to save his life, or later go to render medical attention, despite the cries and pleas of Robert's two cousins. In March 1999, the one member of the murder gang that stood trial for Robert's killing was acquitted of any charges. The RUC witnesses were allowed to remain silent and not testify during the trial."

...

"Since the July 1998 Drumcree march, four people have been murdered as a result of the Orange Order assaults on the Garvaghy Road community. On July 12, three small boys were murdered while they slept in their home in Ballymoney. The Quinns home was petrol bombed by Orange Order supporters because the mother was Catholic. Rescuers could not reach the three brothers before they died in the fire set by the bomb. In October, an RUC officer, Frank Reilly, died of injuries sustained in September when a loyalist mob threw blast bombs and fireworks at RUC lines protecting the Nationalist area. And in 1999, Elizabeth O'Neill, a 65-year old grandmother was killed when loyalists threw a bomb into her home."

...

"On March 15, 1999 Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition Solicitor Rosemary Nelson, the well known Human Rights Activist and Civil Liberties Advocate in Ireland, was brutally murdered when a bomb was planted under her car. The first woman to set up a law practice in Lurgan, Rosemary Nelson stood for many clients who were victims of the emergency legislated system in the six counties. She accompanied the GRRC to meetings with both the British and Irish prime ministers and in proximity talks with the Orange Order. She had been under death threat from supporters of the Portadown Orange Lodge, and had received death threats and intimidation from the RUC. These threats were being investigated by the Metropolitan Police force at the time of her death. All the residents groups have joined in the call for a fully independent investigation into Rosemary's assassination, because there is no confidence that the RUC could conduct an impartial investigation."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/northern_ireland/4626212.stm

"...Orangemen last walked down the Garvaghy Road from a church service at Drumcree Parish Church in July 1997.

However, the Parades Commission has since banned them from parading down the road following objections by nationalist residents.

The commission was set up in 1997 to make decisions on whether or not restrictions should be imposed on controversial parades during Northern Ireland's marching season..."