Loyalists may attempt to block anti-internment march

Posted by Jim on May 21, 2016

Loyalists have said they will not seek permission to oppose the annual
anti-internment march, which will take place on Sunday, August 7. The
move could spark a confrontation as up to 5,000 people and at least four
bands are expected to take part in the march.

The parade has been organised to mark the 45th anniversary of the
introduction of internment in 1971, which saw hundreds of nationalists
jailed without charge.

The parade is also intended to highlight the ongoing process by which
republicans are being interned ‘by remand’, held on trumped-up charges
without trial.

In 2013 there was serious violence on Royal Avenue – Belfast’s busiest
shopping street – after loyalists opposed to the parade clashed with the
PSNI. Last August’s anti-internment march was stopped by the PSNI near
Ardoyne in north Belfast as hundreds of loyalists gathered in the city
centre for a major protest.

However, parade organisers say this year’s march will leave
Andersonstown in west Belfast before moving down Castle Street and onto
Donegall Place at its junction with Royal Avenue. The procession will
then make its way to Belfast City Hall where a stage will be erected for
a rally which is expected to be finished by 1.30pm.

Anti-Internment League spokesman Gerard Fitzpatrick said some city
centre traders and loyalists had raised objections about the location
and timing of last year’s march. “This year’s route means no such
objections from this quarter.”

He said that as well as remembering the introduction of internment, the
parade has been organised to raise awareness of the continued use of
internment by the British and Free State governments by remand and
revocation of early release licences and through miscarriage of justice.

He added that the parade is open to people from all political
background, and had been organised with the support of community
representatives, individual trade union members and human rights
activists.

“This is an opportunity for people to peacefully demonstrate against
these actions,” he said.

A campaign to free one internee, Derry republican Tony
Taylor, is being officially launched at a public meeting in the city
next Tuesday. Mr Taylor, a spokesperson for Republican Network for
Unity, was jailed in Derry on March 10.

The SDLP and Sinn Fein both supported a motion calling for Mr Taylor’s
immediate release from prison at a council meeting last month.

A spokesperson for the campaign called on anyone with a regard for civil
liberties or human rights to attend Tuesday’s meeting and back the drive
to have Mr Taylor released from prison.

The ‘Free Tony Taylor’ campaign will be launched at a public meeting in
the Maldron Hotel on Tuesday at 7.30pm.