Pathology of Orange Parades, Continued
Posted By: July 10, 2017
“The pathology of Orange parading through areas where they are not wanted continues unabated, the desire for flaunting Orange supremacy undiminished, and the atavistic urge to disrespect Catholics as strong as ever.(See article below). Even after being banned for 20 years from parading down the Garvaghy Road, the Drumcree Parade of Portadown still threatens to humiliate the Catholic residents of the Garvaghy Road. … Just imagine old white guys in white robes and hoods demanding the ABSOLUTE RIGHT to parade through poor Black areas, and you get the picture.( The image, of course, does not apply to all Orangemen, just to those who want to violently parade through defenseless Catholic areas.)”—Fr. Sean Mc Manus
David Young. Irish News. Belfast. Monday, July 10, 2017
Orangemen banned for 20 years from walking along Garvaghy Road in Portadown say they are still determined to overturn the prohibition.
The Drumcree dispute in Portadown, Co Armagh, was a major flashpoint in the 1990s and early 2000s with the annual event marred by intense violence on a number of occasions.
While tensions have dissipated over the last two decades, Portadown Orangemen continue to campaign to be allowed to walk along the predominantly nationalist Garvaghy Road. They hold a small protest every week.
The Parades Commission has prohibited the Garvaghy section of the parade since 1998.
At the annual main Drumcree parade on Sunday, Darryl Hewitt, the grand master of Portadown District LOL No 1, accused the commission of “pandering to a hard-line republican agenda”.
He challenged Secretary of State James Brokenshire to dismiss the commission members.
“They must go and the call from this place this afternoon is that the secretary of state must show some mettle, and once and for all sack the whole lot of them,” he said.
“However, we attempt to complete our parade each and every Sunday – a fact that most people in Northern Ireland are not aware of.
“This has been the case since July 1998 when our late District Master Harold Gracey said that we would remain on protest until our rights have been restored.
“Our resolve has not diminished over the weeks, months and indeed years.
“No-one should be in any doubt, Portadown District are in this for the long haul. We will not be deflected from seeking to achieve our objective.”
In its determination on the 2017 Drumcree parade, the commission said preventing Orangemen from accessing the Garvaghy Road was “necessary, proportionate and fair”.
Commissioners said there was no consensus between Orangemen and nationalist residents on the format of any potential future talks to mediate a resolution.
In the absence of any locally-agreed accommodation, the commission said there would be a “high potential for public disorder” if the parade was allowed to proceed on its notified route.
A proposal to transfer the responsibility for regulating parades from Westminster to Northern Ireland politicians was agreed in the 2014 Stormont House Agreement.
That plan, which would have seen Stormont ministers developing a new way to manage parades and protests, has yet to materialize, amid ongoing political stalemate.
