WHILE nationalists gathered to rally in the Bogside last night, the tricolour was draped on a pyre of wooden tea crates which towered in the centre of Derry's Fountain estate. It would be lit by the Protestant residents to cheers at midnight.
The Mayor of Derry, Richard Dallas, looked on at the young men in English football jerseys who were drinking beer. "This is normal, it's traditional . .. I hope that the celebration of the culture and history of the Ulster British people will be able to proceed in its normal and peaceful fashion."
"These people here," said John Hunter, a member of the Apprentice Boys, "are the besieged minority in this town. The people here are very bitter."
Rose White raised her family here. "We've never seen a cease fire here in the Fountain. We've always been under fire." She looks towards the city centre. "We can't go into our city without being abused." She feels the Protestants have a right to express their anger. She hopes the Apprentice Boys will stand their ground at Magazine Gate today.
Natalie McClements holds a pretty little girl of about nine by her side. "I am afraid to bring my wains into the town ... our bandsmen can't go into the shops and still they are selling tricolours. That's very offensive. They are getting away with too much . . . all the houses, all the jobs are going to Catholics now. Fair play to the Boys if they stand their ground."
Mr Hunter understands the bitterness. "These people haven't even the rights the Blacks in, Soweto had in the worst days of apartheid," he claims. He is pessimistic about reconciliation.
"John Hume can't even get them in the Bogside to see his point of view. What hope is there of them ever seeing our point of view ..? John Hume is the big loser here, but then the people are the ultimate losers and the people of the Fountain have been the losers too along."
