There was something of a carnival atmosphere about Sinn Fein's 'March for Truth' yesterday. They came from north, south, east and west of the city, following Republican pipe bands that looked suspiciously like their loyalist counterparts.
"I haven't seem so many fucking Maggie Thatchers in years," said a wizened old woman standing on a bench in front of city hall. She was refering to the plethora of of tableaux laid on the for the protestors - a pin striped suit wearing Thatcher pulling the string of various loyalist gunmen being the most popular. The crowd booed on cue as one of their own dressed as a British soilder, gun hoisted and grinning with embarasment, passed by in a mocked-up army jeep. They cheered the little girls carrying a long banner with images of the dead hunger strikers.
Gerry Adams arrived with the group from the west, red-faced from the walk to town on what, this summer, was a rare sunny afternoon.
One of the floats parked up near the speaker's rostrum and a young boy inside helped collect the guns that had been used in the parade. A respectable-looking grandmother asked if she could pose for a picture with an AK47. The man explained it was real. "Deactivated," he added quickly. A crowd of young boys rushed over, eager to play with the gun but it had disappeared.
"I haven't seem so many fucking Maggie Thatchers in years," said a wizened old woman standing on a bench in front of city hall. She was refering to the plethora of of tableaux laid on the for the protestors - a pin striped suit wearing Thatcher pulling the string of various loyalist gunmen being the most popular. The crowd booed on cue as one of their own dressed as a British soilder, gun hoisted and grinning with embarasment, passed by in a mocked-up army jeep. They cheered the little girls carrying a long banner with images of the dead hunger strikers.
Gerry Adams arrived with the group from the west, red-faced from the walk to town on what, this summer, was a rare sunny afternoon.
One of the floats parked up near the speaker's rostrum and a young boy inside helped collect the guns that had been used in the parade. A respectable-looking grandmother asked if she could pose for a picture with an AK47. The man explained it was real. "Deactivated," he added quickly. A crowd of young boys rushed over, eager to play with the gun but it had disappeared.
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