Avoiding the issue leaves the door open to the bosses to once again play the orange card. The result is that in many cases such unity was followed by a loyalist backlash as the bosses attempt to prevent it reoccurring. Therefore on one hand it is true that Protestant workers learn that they are more powerful and successful in struggles when the combine with the Catholic working class. However on the other they still see the bosses and the British state as necessary in order to protect what minor privileges they have. These are indeed minor, as Northern Irish workers, whether Protestant or Catholic, are the worst paid in the British Isles.
Sectarianism is a weapon that has been used again and again by the ruling class.
In 1932 it split unemployed Catholics and Protestants who had come together in the Outdoor Relief Strike and it is being used today to entrench the loyalist side. Without workers unity against the bosses the situation could continue on and on. As long as the Orange state exists to divide Catholic and Protestant there will be sectarianism. Our goal is a socialist Ireland, where the freedom of the individual is respected and where the working class hold direct and complete control through their own councils. In the struggle for this loyalist workers can be won away from their bosses, and only then will the cycle of sectarianism be broken.