Guy Fawkes Night

Remember, remember the fifth of November!

This week in this Sceptered Isle they will commemorate on Bonfire Night, the 5th November, the 403rd Anniversary of Guy Fawkes and friend’s unsuccessful experiment in direct democracy. Some say Mr. Fawkes and Co. were the last people to enter the Houses of Parliament in Westminster with honest intentions. Bonfire Night is an annual celebration on the evening of the 5th of November celebrating the foiling of the Gunpowder Plot of the 5th of November 1605 in which a number of Catholic conspirators, including Guy Fawkes, attempted to blow up the Houses of Parliament in London, England. It is primarily marked in the United Kingdom where it was compulsory, by Royal Decree, to celebrate the deliverance of the King until 1859.

This tasteful commemoration consists of the ritual re-enactment of the burning of Catholics on Bonfire night normally followed by fireworks to remind us that the Gunpowder Plot did not work out greatly to the advantage of the plotters. After Queen Elizabeth I died in 1603, English Catholics who had been persecuted under her rule had hoped that her successor, James I, would be more tolerant of their religion. James I had, after all, had a Catholic mother. Unfortunately, James did not turn out to be more tolerant than Elizabeth and a number of young men, 13 to be exact, decided that violent action was the answer.



A small group took shape, under the leadership of Robert Catesby. Catesby felt that violent action was warranted. Indeed, the thing to do was to blow up the Houses of Parliament. In doing so, they would kill the King, maybe even the Prince of Wales, and the Members of Parliament who were making life difficult for the Catholics. Today these conspirators would be known as extremists, or terrorists.

To carry out their plan, the conspirators got hold of 36 barrels of gunpowder - and stored them in a cellar, just under the House of Lords. But as the group worked on the plot, it became clear that innocent people would be hurt or killed in the attack, including some people who even fought for more rights for Catholics. Some of the plotters started having second thoughts. One of the group members even sent an anonymous letter warning his friend, Lord Monteagle, to stay away from the Parliament on November 5th. Was the letter real?

The warning letter reached the King, and the King's forces made plans to stop the conspirators. Guy Fawkes, who was in the cellar of the parliament with the 36 barrels of gunpowder when the authorities stormed it in the early hours of November 5th, was caught, tortured and executed.


Lewes Bonfire, Guy Fawkes Effigy

It's unclear if the conspirators would ever have been able to pull off their plan to blow up the Parliament even if they had not been betrayed. Some have suggested that the gunpowder itself was so old as to be useless. Since Guy Fawkes and the other conspirators got caught before trying to ignite the powder, we'll never know for certain.

Even for the period which was notoriously unstable, the Gunpowder Plot struck a very profound chord for the people of England. In fact, even today, the reigning monarch only enters the Parliament once a year, on what is called "the State Opening of Parliament". Prior to the Opening, and according to custom, the Yeomen of the Guard search the cellars of the Palace of Westminster. Nowadays, the Queen and Parliament still observe this tradition.

On the very night that the Gunpowder Plot was foiled, on November 5th, 1605, bonfires were set alight to celebrate the safety of the King. Since then, November 5th has become known as Bonfire Night. The event is commemorated every year with fireworks and burning effigies of Guy Fawkes on a bonfire.

Some of the English have been known to wonder, in a tongue in cheek kind of way, whether they are celebrating Fawkes' execution or honoring his attempt to do away with the government! On 31 January 1606, Fawkes and a number of others implicated in the conspiracy were tried in Westminster Hall. After being found guilty, they were taken to Old Palace Yard in Westminster and St Paul's Yard, where they were hanged, drawn and quartered.

For aficionados of such things, hanging, drawing and was in a league of its own in what the U.S Constitution calls “cruel and unusual punishment; Until 1814, the full punishment for the crime of treason was to be hanged, drawn and quartered in that the condemned prisoner would be:

1. Dragged on a hurdle (a wooden frame) to the place of execution. (This is one possible meaning of drawn.)
2. Hanged by the neck for a short time or until almost dead (hanged).
3. Disemboweled and emasculated and the genitalia and entrails burned before the condemned's eyes.
4. The body divided into four parts, then Beheaded (quartered).
Typically, the resulting five parts (i.e. the four quarters of the body and the head) were gibbeted (put on public display) in different parts of the city, town, or, in famous cases, in the country, to deter would-be traitors who had not seen the execution.


Traitors being taught a lesson

Even in the unstable times and despite the many conspiracy theories suggesting Guy Fawkes was framed the Plot was a shock and impacted on the popular imagination as can be seen from the popular rhymes still extant.

Remember, remember the Fifth of November,
The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why the Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t'was his intent
To blow up King and Parli'ment.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England's overthrow;
By God's providence he was catch'd
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!

Or this more robust number is truer to the original Anti-Popery of Bonfire Night celebrations.

A penny loaf to feed the Pope
A farthing o' cheese to choke him.
A pint of beer to rinse it down.
A fagot of sticks to burn him.
Burn him in a tub of tar.
Burn him like a blazing star.
Burn his body from his head.
Then we'll say ol' Pope is dead.
Hip hip hoorah!
Hip hip hoorah hoorah

In these days of diversity and inclusion it serves to remind us of a certain institutional prejudice on the part of the British state. The Statute Law of England, in the Act of the Williamite Succession, describes the Pope as “An Anti-Christ and Object of Perdition” – In this of course it is repeating the words of the same King Guy Fawkes attempted to blow up along with his parliament, James VI of Scotland and I of England in his preamble to the official bible of the Church of England, the “King James” Bible. His mummy, Mary Queen of Scots, would have been very cross with him if she had not been beheaded by his predecessor, Elizabeth I.

More seriously, the same act prohibits both the Sovereign or their Consort from being Catholic or the heir to the throne and their Consort. It goes further and says that neither the Sovereign’s First and Second Lords of the Treasury (namely the Prime Minister and The Chancellor of the Exchequer) nor The Lord Chancellor (The head of the English legal system and successor in office of Sir Thomas More) can be Catholics thus institutionalising sectarianism at the very centre of the British state and legitimising the somewhat snide anti-Catholicism still fashionable in some quarters. They of course can be any other religion or indeed none but they cannot be Catholics.

It is not, one suspects that the Royal Family particularly identifies with this sectarianism. The Queen has shown herself immune to such instincts over the years meeting with Popes on several occasions, her husband was reared as Greek Orthodox and his mother became an Orthodox nun, Prince Charles has often signaled that he feels he has a wider brief than as a defender of the State Church of England and a senior member of the family, the widely admired Katherine Kent, has converted to Catholicism with no signs of family disapproval.


Their Non-Catholic Majesties

So where is the agenda for maintaining this sectarianism at the heart of the British state? I suspect there is no agenda here and it is a bit like the embarrassing drunken uncle at the family wedding, all are agreed it needs to be evicted but are not sure how it should be done.

So next week another Sovereign will arise in the Houses of Parliament, but not before the Serjeant at Arms and his men have searched the basement, and she will deliver the programme of “Her Government” for the next year, The Queens Speech. Whilst delivered by the Queen it is somewhat misnamed as it is written by “Her Prime Minister”. So perhaps that son of the manse, Gordon Brown, will take this opportunity to remove this unpalatable anomaly from the heart of the British Constitution and give a clear lead on diversity and inclusion, two highly fashionable causes close to the heart of New Labour. I suspect as the Queen delivers the lines abolishing The Act of Succession with her famous deadpan delivery she will give a wry smile and be relieved that this embarrassing uncle, who is well past his sell by date, is being removed from the proceedings, never to return. It can only lead to better humour all round.

Orange March, Glasgow.

Imagine my shock, last Saturday 5th July 2008, when this gang of Hilly Billys passed by my hotel in Glasgow to celebrate ethnic cleansing in my country! And an hour later they marched by on their way back! Time Warp!! For 3 hours the Orange Order took over the centre of Glasgow and Police steered traffic away from the East End of Glasgow for the rest of the day and all this was in honour of a battle which took place between a Scottish and Dutch King in Ireland 318 years ago!



The marches, commonly referred to as the Orange Walk, are celebrations which mark Prince William of Orange's victory over King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The Orange Institution, more commonly known as the Orange Order or the Orange Lodge, is a Protestant fraternal organisation based predominantly in Northern Ireland and Scotland with lodges throughout the Commonwealth and the United States. It was founded in Loughgall, County Armagh, Ireland in 1795; its name is a tribute to Dutch-born Protestant King of Britain, William III of England (William II of Scotland), of the House of Orange - Nassau. William had defeated the Catholic army of James II at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. This victory also copper fastened the Plantation of Ulster which was a planned process of colonisation and dispossession of the native Irish population which took place in the northern Irish province of Ulster during the early 17th century in the reign of James I of England.



English and Scottish Protestants were settled on land that had been confiscated from Catholic Irish landowners in the counties of Donegal, Coleraine, Tyrone, Fermanagh, Armagh and Cavan, following the Flight of the Earls in 1607. The Plantation of Ulster was the biggest and, from the English colonial perspective, the most successful of the Plantations of Ireland, today called ethnic cleansing. Ulster was planted in this way to prevent further rebellion, having proved itself over the preceding century to be the most resistant of Ireland's provinces to English invasion. However, giving an indication of the mixed loyalties reflected in the attachment of the Orange Order in a Nationalist Scotland to the Union with England and to the British Crown, the Scottish mercenaries involved in the murderous conquest of Ulster stayed on and took the Royalist side against Cromwell and the Parliament during the English Civil War.



Observers have accused the Orange Institution of being a sectarian organisation, due to its goals and its exclusion of Roman Catholics as members, however some denominations of Protestants are also ineligible for membership. In Ireland the Orange Parades are seen by the Nationalist population as a triumphalist territorial assertion of supremacy designed to intimidate. They need to be seen against the traditional background of sectarian division and institutionalised discrimination which led to the Civil Rights Movement whose suppression was used by the Provisional IRA to justify its campaign of violence.

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2008/05/death-of-brian-keenan.html

Sixty people were arrested following the Orange parade in Glasgow on Saturday, police said. Strathclyde Police said 12 were held for sectarian offences, one for knife possession, one for having an offensive weapon and the rest for minor offences. Police said the majority of the 15,500 marchers were well behaved, but that some onlookers had too much to drink. Ian Wilson, of the Orange Order in Scotland, said it would “take a while” to ensure troublemakers stayed away. The arrests came after police warned they would crack down on bigots at the County Grand Orange Lodge Parade, which involved 182 city lodges and 90 bands.



Assistant Chief Constable Kevin Smith said: 'It would be easy to say that this was better than previous years. However, we are still left with a situation whereby 60 people were arrested.

“There has been abusive, drunken and sectarian behaviour in the streets of Glasgow, significant disruption to the city, and I have had to bring in literally hundreds of police officers from all over the force area to police this event.”

In 2004 former Scottish Orange Order member Adam Ingram sued MP George Galloway for saying in his autobiography that Ingram had "played the flute in a sectarian, anti-Catholic, Protestant-supremacist Orange Order band". Judge Lord Kingarth ruled that the phrase was “fair comment” on the Orange Order and that Ingram had been a member, although he had not played the flute.



The Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland has also spoken out against Scottish independence, and on 24 March 2007, a parade of 12,000 Orangemen marched through Edinburgh's Royal Mile to celebrate the Act of Union. The Orange Order's view of history is usually not inaccurate, but could be criticised as outdated. It is reminiscent of the nineteenth century English historian Thomas Babington Macaulay, who argued that the Glorious Revolution which brought William into power was a major turning point in British and world history. Macaulay's interpretation was very influential but has come under sustained criticism in recent decades. Nationalists have from time to time criticised the Order for overlooking the fact that William was supported by the Pope in his campaigns against James' backer Louis XIV of France, and this fact is sometimes left out of Orange histories. However it appears in others.



The obsession of the Orange Order with events of 1690 and its ambiguous loyalty to the British Crown rather than the British State seems entirely perverse in this day and age, particularly when the so called “Glorious Revolution” ushered in by William and Mary (daughter of the defeated James II) specifically recognised that Parliament was Sovereign and power was shared between the Monarch and Parliament. In the Orange Order’s world view they look purely to the Monarch and Parliament is a source of perdition. Indeed why not have parades in honour of the wars of the Spanish and Austrian Successions which were far more prolonged and bloodier but did more to assert Britain’s position in Europe and the world and are equally absolutely irrelevant to the modern world?



However two thoughts occurred to me witnessing this anachronistic display of “Fife and Thunder” designed to intimidate and assert territorial supremacy. I had last been in Glasgow as a young 11 year old scout and growing up in Dublin I had never experienced sectarianism until I travelled to Scotland on that trip. Indeed to the fundamentalist Protestants of Scotland sectarian harassment of those of other persuasions appeared to be both a God given right and a duty. Growing up in Dublin, for all its many faults, religion was never an issue, there were no visible religious tensions and people of all faiths mixed freely (despite it must be said the efforts of the Catholic Church led by Archbishop John McQuaid commonly referred to as the ArchBigot of Dublin) and got along. Indeed it was unheard of to ask somebody what their faith was. And I have no doubt that if you had voiced opposition to the march in Glasgow that Saturday morning the many flag draped supporters walking along on the sidelines would have been happy “to sort out the Taigues”. How easy it is to label and dehumanise those who disagree with you but the inscriptions on the banners spoke of the fierce simplistic certainty of the marchers; “No Surrender”, “The Truth Defenders”, “If God be for us, Who can be against us?” How convenient it is to have a direct line to God!



But looking at the marchers they were hardly those who had inherited the Earth? The demographics were resoloutely C and D, I wouldn’t imagine there were many university degrees between them, the “Protestant Ladies in their fine bonnets” who walked behind could with some kindness be described as “rough looking” and Glasgow East where many of them hail from has the distinction of being the constituency with the worst life expectancy in the UK and the Clyde of 63 shipyards which supplied the world with ships has now been reduced to 3 residual yards and the main employment sources in modern Glasgow are Call Centres. Indeed the loyalty of the Orange marchers to the Union and the British Crown is out of step with an increasingly Nationalistic Scotland. For this Protestant lumpen proletariat is equally the product of religious discrimination against them as “Non Conformists”, the divide and rule of the English Hanoverians during the Highland Wars and the savage highland clearances which provided a ready supply of workers for the tenements of Glasgow and contributed to the Scottish Diaspora to the corners of the Empire driven by the poverty of existence in their homeland. So, to paraphrase Monty Python, “What had loyalty done for them?” Indeed during the weekend many Glaswegians volunteered how they disliked these strangely Masonic Orange Men and their creed and attachment to the Union.



And however the British Establishment and Royal Family may be embarrassed by their “Loyalty” today we must remember that their view of history is not necessarily without foundation and is indeed embedded in the sectarian nature of the British State and its statute law as embedded in the law which heralded (along with the Bill of Rights) the “Glorious Revolution” which is celebrated by Queen and Parliament each year, the Act of the Williamnite Settlement

http://daithaic.blogspot.com/2007/11/guy-fawkes-night.html



And indeed this sectarianism is echoed in the Authorised King James Bible which is the official Bible of the Church of England and is the only document in English Law whose copyright is owned in perpetuity by the Crown. It states;

“WHEREAS the late King James the Second . . . did endeavour to subvert and extirpate the protestant religion . . .. And thereupon their Majesties were pleased [to] . . . make effectual provision for the settlement of the religion, laws and liberties of this kingdom

And whereas it hath been found by experience, that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this protestant kingdom, to be governed by a popish prince, or by any King or Queen marrying a papist . .

[T]he throne being thereby vacant, his highness the prince of Orange (whom it hath pleased Almighty God to make the glorious instrument of delivering this kingdom from popery and arbitrary power) . . ..

And the said lords spiritual and temporal, and commons, seriously considering how it hath pleased Almighty God, in his marvellous providence, and merciful goodness to this nation, to provide and preserve their said Majesties royal persons most happily to reign over us upon the throne of their ancestors . . ..

[F]or preserving a certainty in the succession [of the throne], in and upon which the unity, peace, tranquillity, and safety of this nation doth, under God, wholly consist and depend . .”

So, who is more out of step? The Orange Men of Glasgow and Belfast or the British State?