I wouldn't be comfortable with learning how to play the Orange flute because that's a Protestant thing that was set up to oppose the Catholic faith. But the Protestants could come and learn the Irish language or Irish literature or Irish dancing, and they're truly comfortable doing that because it's part of their culture now too. It's not necessarily a Catholic thing to do.
The Irish culture has been around from the very beginning of history whereas the marching has only been around for so many hundred years, and I think that because the Irish culture has been around for much longer, it's much stronger.
I met a woman on the Shankill Road who has got no difficulty in sending her daughter into the Catholic Ardoyne to learn Irish dancing. Does that surprise you?
I think that's brilliant, that Protestant people can come in and learn Irish dancing, and I would welcome them anytime. But I don't think that it's suitable for us to go and learn the Orange flute because it's in opposition to the Catholic faith, it's not the culture…I know it's culture, but it's not, it's in opposition to us, and I couldn't go and learn their flute.
I think that Irish culture is there to enjoy and to have fun with, but the Protestant culture is there to oppose the Catholic Church and just to oppose everything the Catholic Church has to say.
Do you think Loyalist culture or 'Orange' culture is equally freely available for everybody in Ireland to enjoy?
No, I don't think they would like the Catholic community to come in and learn their culture; and it's only there for opposition. If, maybe, if you took the opposition away, the Protestant culture wouldn't be there and it wouldn't be able to stand.
I think it's OK that Protestants, if they want to learn the Irish language or Irish dancing, because this culture's part of Ireland and Ireland's a country and not a faith. So it's part of the Irish tradition to do Irish dancing and the language, so, but I feel that marching - that's just there to start trouble really and I think that the Protestants feel that if they didn't have their marching, they'd have nothing to stand, nothing to show for their religion.
