Ban on Orange parade down Garvaghy Road

The Parades Commission has again banned Portadown Orangemen from parading down the nationalist Garvaghy Road from Drumcree Church on Sunday. Gerry Moriarty, Northern Editor, reports.

At the same time it has criticising the nationalist residents' group for refusing to engage in a mediation initiative in South Africa.

The Portadown District is now considering appealing the decision to the commission notwithstanding reports that the order's ruling body, the Grand Orange Lodge, wants to suspend the Portadown body for engaging with the commission.

While the commission once again refused permission to the Portadown Orangemen to parade from Drumcree Church down Garvaghy Road, it also commended local Orangemen for participating in commission-sponsored schemes and criticised the Garvaghy residents' body.

The Portadown District sent two representatives to a study trip to South Africa in February, which the commission hoped might assist in finally finding a resolution to the annual Drumcree disputes that first began in 1995. The Garvaghy group, however, refused to attend.

"The commission was immensely disappointed that the leaders of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition decided not to participate in the study visit, and were negative about it from its inception until well after its completion," the commission stated in its ruling on Drumcree.

"This latter point is of significance to the commission because the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition has campaigned for restrictions that have been placed on the expression of the Portadown District's right of freedom of assembly since July 1998.

"The commission believes that just as the rights of Portadown District carry with them responsibilities on the leadership, so the leadership of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition has a responsibility and a duty to society to work with others to help create the trust and understanding that might make genuine and meaningful engagement a reality," the commission said.

Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, head of the Garvaghy group and now also a health policy worker for Sinn Féin, said the commission was unfair in its criticism.

He said the Garvaghy residents should not be singled out for such criticism because local Catholic clergy and community and business representatives, who were also invited to South Africa, did not travel.

"I have a lot more to do with my time than to go globetrotting," said Mr Mac Cionnaith. "And remember, I am not the one preventing dialogue. We will engage in unconditional talks with the Portadown District at any time, but they consistently refuse to talk to us. And that also is made very clear in the commission's ruling banning the parade from the Garvaghy Road."

Mr Mac Cionnaith said that the Drumcree protests had been diminishing in force and strength in recent years, and he expected that trend to continue. "I expect this will be one of the quietest Drumcrees because the Orange Order doesn't have the support it enjoyed for this protest that it had seven or eight years ago."

The Portadown District is engaging in greater efforts to resolve the dispute as it also had recent contacts with the Department of Foreign Affairs to put forward its case for marching.

It is unlikely, however, that the commission will reverse its decision because, as Mr Mac Cionnaith pointed out, the Portadown Orangemen will not deal directly with the Garvaghy group.

This, the tenth successive contentious Drumcree parade, has become additionally complicated by a report in the Belfast Sunday Life that the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland last week decided to suspend the Portadown District because its representatives were now engaging with the commission, which is contrary to the order's rulings.

Calls to the grand lodge seeking confirmation of this report met with the consistent response: "We can't confirm or deny this because grand lodge meetings are held in secret, and therefore we can't disclose what was or was not discussed or decided."

It is understood that the suspension can only be implemented with the agreement of the Co Armagh grand lodge. but that so far no meeting has been called for that purpose.

Mr David Jones, spokesman for the Portadown District, said he was aware of the suspension reports, but he too was in the dark because the Grand Lodge of Ireland had not conveyed any notice of suspension to him.