Tánaiste and Northern Secretary urge Orange Order to reconsider parade strategy
Gilmore and Villiers say order should talk to local nationalists
Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore: “I think there is a responsibility on the Orange Order to think about taking people onto the streets in situations where the tensions are already very high.” Photograph: Niall Carson/PA Wire
The Orange Order should reconsider its current strategy of making weekly applications to parade past the Ardoyne shops in north Belfast, Tánaiste Eamon Gilmore and Northern Ireland Secretary of State Theresa Villiers have said.
Mr Gilmore and Ms Villiers expressed concern that Orange parades each Saturday up to police lines on the Woodvale Road some 300m short of the Ardoyne shops would add to the current tensions.