Northern Ireland’s First Minister has accused unionist leaders of moving towards a “more extreme element” after the High Court in Belfast quashed a decision by the Parades Commission to impose restrictions on an Orange Order march at Drumcree.
Michelle O’Neill visited residents of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Co Armagh, on Wednesday and she said political unionism wanted to “revisit those dark days”, referring to widespread disorder seen in 1998 and previous years because of tensions around the march along that route.
But Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) communities minister Gordon Lyons said there was “a huge amount of anger” in the unionist community over the commission’s decisions to impose restrictions on the annual Orange Order parade.
The legal challenge, which was launched last month, had been brought by a Portadown Orangeman.
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The Parades Commission, which adjudicates on contentious marches, has blocked the order from marching along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown in July every year since 1998.
At the High Court in Belfast on Tuesday, this year’s determination was quashed after the court heard it had not been considered in its “final form” by all members of the commission.
In a statement, the Parades Commission said it had already “implemented procedural changes to address the issue identified in the proceedings”.
Speaking after meeting Garvaghy Road residents, O’Neill said: “This is a very confident community, a community that’s very much looking towards the future and do not want the days of the past visited upon them once again.
“But this is a community that’s also anxious, very anxious, by what they saw yesterday – a triumphalism that was expressed by the leaders of unionism standing shoulder to shoulder, claiming a victory over this community.
“The anxiety that was felt in this community yesterday was what they saw on display by the leaders of political union.
“What they saw was an ugliness. What they saw was a harking for the days of the past.
“What they can’t fathom here in this community is why the leaders of political unionism want to revisit those dark days.
“Why do they want to bring that back into this community?
“That does beg the question: why is unionism limping ever more, or day by day, to the more extreme element of things in society?
“None of us want to see this. We want to keep moving forward.”
DUP leader Gavin Robinson criticised O’Neill’s characterisation of the motives behind those celebrating the High Court ruling.
“It will be lost on no one in Northern Ireland how the ‘First Minister for all’ appears to take no issue with a public body that has been found to act unlawfully,” he said.
“It’s not triumphalist to expect that applications made to the Parades Commission should be considered properly, in line with legislation and without the inherent disrespect that was revealed during the recent application.
“We often hear that the law should be applied equally, but Michelle O’Neill’s blind spot when it comes to a legitimate application by Portadown District Lodge that was treated so dismissively is revealing.
“She cannot wish away their rights and nor should she try.”
Lyons said earlier on Wednesday that the unionist community had “absolutely” lost confidence in the Parades Commission.
“It lost it a long time ago, but what we had yesterday was just another example and very clear evidence of how that has happened,” he said.
“I think most people will be shocked, in fact outraged, at the way in which the commission made their decisions.
“Decisions being signed off on by commissioners that haven’t even read them, business being done in that manner by WhatsApp, so there’s a huge amount of anger out there in the unionist community.
“I think that anybody that’s interested and is concerned about good governance should be worried about what has come out of court yesterday in terms of what was made public about the goings-on of the commission, so very, very limited confidence, I would say, across the country.”
Any future parade along the road would require a new application to the Parades Commission.
Asked if he would be supportive of the Orange Order making an application to march on the Garvaghy Road, Lyons said: “Of course, because everybody deserves the right to have their application determined in a fair way, with all of the factors taken into consideration.
“Unfortunately, people have been penalised, the Orange Order have been penalised in that area because they’ve been willing to engage with local residents, but because local residents haven’t been willing to engage, they have essentially held that veto powers.
“That is wrong, and there are big lessons here to be learned, and we certainly welcome all of the information that was revealed in court yesterday.” – Press Association
