Druid criticises Hallowe'en protests

In the wake of the proposed protest against Derry’s Hallowe’en carnival parade by members of United Christian Witness, Derry Now was contacted by local druid, Bryan Sutherland.

Bryan was keen to point out that the city’s traditional parade was a celebration of Samhain, the Celtic festival marking the end of the harvest season and the beginning of winter, which predated Christianity.

Bryan who lives in the Waterside and is originally from Inverness in Scotland began by explaining that Druidism or Druidry was a subsection of Paganism.

“Druidism is a Celtic religion with Celtic traditions,” said Bryan.

He added: “What made me angry about the proposed protest at the Hallowe’en parade was that we have to believe and respect the beliefs and customs of others, yet, for some reason, they have just decided to attack a holiday of which they have no real grasp.

“They have this idea that we are weirdos in the forest sacrificing animals to some god, when the actual Hallowe’en origins are completely different.

“Hallowe’en or Samhain is the last day in the calendar because November 1 would be the start of our New Year. It is a day of feasting and drinking. Yes there is a bit of jollity, I am not going to deny that.

“Paganism is only out since 1951 when the UK removed the Witchcraft law. Paganism is called the Celtic revival. We do follow some of the old ways, Summer Solstice, Winter Solstice, Bealtaine [the Celtic May Day festival] and Samhain. We worship Mother Nature. We worship the goddesses but we are doing exactly what everybody else has done. We have picked the best bits of an ancient religion and modernised it. We have a saying, ‘If it does no harm, do it.’” said Bryan.

Bryan, who has autism is an actor with Stage Beyond theatre group at the Millenium Forum, cautioned this did not mean Druids could do whatever they liked.

“We believe everything is connected, so, even if you were to pick a flower, it doesn’t matter, it is a flower but you have picked the flower and harmed it and maybe that flower was, maybe, a rabbit’s dinner. So by me picking the flower to give to you, I have starved a rabbit, so I have done harm to something else,” he said.

“Even though it might seem inconsequential, my action might have repercussions, so Druids actually watch what they do as regards nature. We try to make sure there is no litter.

“Druids are eco-friendly because we believe in Mother Nature. I think people have the misconception that we are in the forest at night howling at the moon.

“We actually clean up litter, plant trees. We are trying to put back what we take. What I wanted to do is put across an alternative opinion from the United Christian Witness group. Whatever their view is, I am fine with that. They are entitled to their view but they should not be allowed to put their view onto us, just because they don’t understand us.

“I think sometimes we have been persecuted for what happened in the past,” said Bryan.

Bryan said if he met someone from the United Christian Witness group he would quote to them the Apostle Paul to the Corinthians: ‘Everything is permissible but not everything is benevolent. No-one should seek his own good but the good of his neighbour’.

“Whatever they believe, they have to understand that by putting their views out in the public, it could harm other people.

“There are proper forums for discussion and ranting and raving about something they don’t understand might be harmful.

“If they want to understand Druidism, Celtic Revival, there were almost 80,000 of us in the UK at the 2001 Census, that could be 90,000 by now. There are also 1,500 Druids in Ireland and I know at least another 15 in the city and we meet up eight times a year,” said Bryan.

As well as meeting up at historic sites, including the Beltany Stone Circle in Raphoe, Bryan said Druids often travel to their Celtic Temple in County Kerry.

“I think people don’t realise, in Northern Ireland, there are not just two religions,” said Bryan.

“We all have to share the land together and I find, sometimes, the problem is, the two parties ‘fight’ and they forget about the younger people who are not part of those two groupings. So our views are never heard. Our views are never taken into consideration.

“For example, the main road from here to Belfast went through Dungiven and Drumahoe. They took away a forest down in Ness Woods. To them that was brilliant. It was a straight line, a beautiful road to Belfast, don’t get me wrong.

“But to us, that is beyond horror because those trees had a history, the stories, the people who lived under those trees, who got married, who fought, the animals in the trees, their lives are gone and now we have a big lump of concrete that drives through a forest and no-one stopped to ask could they do it.

“Had we been asked, we would have said, ‘Is there any way around the forest? A slightly different route?’

“If you look at the history of the world, all the violence, all the mass killings and wars have not been caused by Pagans. We are peaceful by nature. We try to avoid confrontation as much as possible.”