Residents have called on the ruling body for marches in the North not to “reawaken and sustain old animosities and divisions” by allowing the Orange Order to march on Garvaghy Road this weekend.
The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition called on the Parades Commission to impose restrictions on the march applied for on Sunday, citing the “extremely violent and lethal circumstances” arising from previous demonstrations in the largely nationalist area of Portadown.
The commission is set to rule on an application for 60 Orange Order members to take part in a proposed Drumcree parade on Sunday, September 27th, after being heavily criticised by unionist politicians last month when a High Court ruling quashed its most recent determination over the march.
The commission has blocked the order from marching along the Garvaghy Road in July every year since 1998.
RM Block
The Drumcree parade dominated headlines in the 1990s when violent clashes and political tension necessitated a big security operation for several summers, as Garvaghy Road residents rejected the march passing through the community.
In a letter to the commission following their meeting on Tuesday, the residents group said it “continues to be the factual reality” that the “vast majority” of those living in the area oppose the parade.
“Residents of our community simply do not accept the ongoing Orange argument that the 1998 parade requires completion,” the letter stated.
“Over the course of the last 28 years, the nationalist community in Portadown has moved on in terms of economic and social development and community relations; all of this progress could be disrupted and jeopardised by an unwanted and unnecessary parade.”
They added that they are “equally concerned about the adverse and negative impact which such a parade would have across all elements of our community with, perhaps, even wider impacts across the North, should such a scenario arise”.
The letter said “an entire generation of young people from our community has grown up and reached adulthood without having to experience the humiliation and fear, tension and violence, or the physical sieges that accompanied those unwanted sectarian marches of the mid and late 1990s through our community”.
“That generation of young people are now the parents of another new generation,” it added.
The group claimed that reviving the march “would undoubtedly resurrect past memories and traumas, lead once again to oppressive policing operations, increase tensions, and reawaken and sustain old animosities and divisions”.
The letter further stated: “It is a desire by the Orange Order, supported by unionist political parties, to replicate and repeat the infamous and inflammatory ‘victory’ march of 1995, led by Ian Paisley and David Trimble.
“It is designed to deliberately arouse ill-feeling and antagonism within the local nationalist community.
“It is designed with the intent of demonstrating to the nationalist community exactly who are the real masters of Portadown.”
The letter continued: “It is our belief, given the controversial history of, and, at times, extremely violent and lethal circumstances directly connected to contentious sectarian parades in Portadown, that the Parades Commission must give proper consideration to the intimidating effect of any planned contentious parade upon residents from the minority Catholic/nationalist population in Portadown.”
They urged the commission to impose a number of restrictions on the march scheduled for Sunday, including: ensuring that parade participants and supporters would be prevented from congregating near or close to the Garvaghy Road and would be prevented from proceeding along any part of the notified route from Drumcree church along Drumcree Road and Garvaghy Road on its journey to Portadown town centre.
SDLP leader Claire Hanna also met with the commission on Tuesday, saying there was “no appetite” for the Drumcree march to go down the Garvaghy Road.
“The community at the centre of this has lived with the scars of the dispute, and that hurt was so clear when I met with them recently,” she said.
“Residents do not want old wounds reopened, community relations damaged or further disruption caused. These are all factors the Parades Commission must take into consideration.
“I think those sentiments are reflected widely, and from many political perspectives, including beyond Portadown.
“There is a weariness about the provocative and deliberately escalatory language some are indulging in.
“Political leadership at moments like this means lowering the temperature, being honest about the mistakes that have been made and resisting the temptation to retreat into old positions.”
