Political parties to meet Parades Commission ahead of Drumcree determination

Political parties are set to meet with the Parades Commission as it considers arguments for and against the Orange Order completing its Drumcree march after almost 30 years.

The commission is expected to rule later on an application for 60 Orange Order members to take part in a proposed procession on Sunday September 27, after being heavily criticised by unionist politicians last month when a High Court ruling quashed its most recent determination over the march.

The Parades Commission has blocked the order from marching along the Garvaghy Road in July every year since 1998.

The Portadown District of the Orange Order, backed by the three unionist parties, has said it will be a much reduced number of people taking part in a silent parade for a short time on the Garvaghy Road.

Upper Bann DUP MP Carla Lockhart said a wrong had been inflicted for 28 years (PA)

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Upper Bann DUP MP Carla Lockhart described the potential of “righting a wrong that has been inflicted on Portadown District for the past 28 years”.

The Drumcree parade dominated headlines in the 1990s when violent clashes and political tension necessitated a major security operation for several summers, as Garvaghy Road residents rejected the march passing through the community.

Sinn Féin, the DUP and TUV are set to meet separately with the commission later.

(Left to right) Sinn Féin MP John Finucane, councillor Catherine Nelson, First Minister Michelle O’Neill and MLA John O’Dowd (Niall Carson/PA)

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Craigavon Sinn Féin Councillor Catherine Nelson described fear in the Garvaghy Road community, and said 3,500 have signed a petition against the parade on the road.

“As someone who has been on the ground over the last number of weeks, listening to residents, listening to their fears, their anxieties, old wounds reopened and many people retraumatised, and actually what has really hit me is the fear that people have for their children, that they will see the humiliating scenes that they experienced back in the 1990s,” she told BBC Radio Ulster.

“This is a peaceful community, a community that has built bridges, tore down peace walls.

“This is a community that allows the parade to go out completely uncontested to the church.

“They tolerate this march and are a community that just wants to live in peace, and want peace for their children.

“That is something that we will bring to the Parades Commission today.”

She said there has been peace in Portadown for the last 28 years, adding until the “recent antics of those agitating towards a parade in recent weeks”.

“For residents it isn’t about the number or the bands, it’s about what this route represents and the memories attached to it,” she added.

“It has been made clear by those commentating that this on Sunday is not the end, in fact it is the beginning, and as well as that when the parade ends on the Garvaghy Road it will be met by supporters and bands, and residents are thinking back to those 1995 celebrations of (David) Trimble and (Ian) Paisley as if there has been a victorious defeat over the people of the Garvaghy Road.”

TUV MP Jim Allister has raised the possibility of a legal challenge (PA)

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TUV MP Jim Allister suggested that another refusal of the parade may result in a legal challenge.

“We will be exhorting them (Parades Commission) to this time determine this according to the law, and that means the starting point of Article 11.1 of the European Convention which is a presumption in favour of the right of assembly, rather than to approach this the other way round and to cause those, the applicants Portadown District, to prove why,” he said.

“There has to be legitimate reasons as to why it shouldn’t happen, and there aren’t any.

“We’re talking about 60 people walking down a stretch of road on which they are directly facing 17 houses, and passing it in a few minutes, no music, no bands and yet there are those who are determined to cause themselves to be offended because they simply do not want any Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road.”