THE HEAD of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland has challenged Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness to condemn the murder of Orangemen during the Troubles and pressed for a march to be allowed along Garvaghy Road from Drumcree church in Portadown.
Grand Secretary Drew Nelson made his call as the order commemorated the Battle of the Somme at a series of parades across Northern Ireland last night.
A parade in Coleraine, which passed close to the spot in the Heights area where Catholic Kevin McDaid was beaten to death by loyalists in May, was completed without incident.
Mr McDaid’s widow Evelyn, a Protestant and a mother of four, had appealed for the murder of her husband not to become the focus of renewed sectarianism in the town.
The parade by local lodge, Killowen Purple Heroes, changed the route of its march and agreed other restrictions in an effort to ease tensions.
No music was played and there was no nationalist counter demonstration.
Earlier, Mrs McDaid appealed for peace: “We are a family drawn from the Protestant and Catholic communities. We have been raised to respect all traditions within our community and would appeal for dignity and calm at this difficult time.”
She added: “We do not desire that any protest should be carried out in our family’s name. We made this statement in order to appeal for calm given recent tensions in the area. Kevin’s murder should not be allowed, or be used as an excuse, to breed further sectarianism or division within our community.”
Nearly two weeks ago at Bodenstown Martin McGuinness said that the question of a small number of contentious Orange marches ought to be “dealt with once and for all”.
“The days of republicans stretching ourselves and our communities to maintain calm in the face of sectarian provocation cannot last forever,” he warned
However, in his address marking the opening of a new Orange arch in Annalong, Co Down last night, Mr Nelson responded to Mr McGuinness’s speech saying that members of the loyal orders paraded to re-affirm their Protestantism and Britishness.
“Deputy First Minister I have a message for you,” he said. “I am Irish as well as British. I am a Protestant and a unionist and you cannot deny me that right nor the benefits which flow from it, including a legitimate expression of my religious and cultural heritage.”
He accused the Deputy First Minister of being intolerant “of any Irish people publicly declaring their Protestantism and Britishness”, and accused the IRA of murdering 273 members of the order during the Troubles.
“We won’t forget them and we won’t allow them to be written out of history just because it doesn’t suit the Sinn Féin version of Irish history that so many people born and living on this island are, and wish to remain, British,” he said.