Drumcree Orangeman seek Ardoyne-style ‘deal’

Posted by Jim on October 8, 2016

An Orange Order parade which was forced through the Ardoyne area of
north Belfast last weekend has reopened the north’s biggest parading
dispute.

A senior Orangeman has hailed what he said was the “resolution” of the
Ardoyne parade standoff. He said it could offer fresh hope for a similar
deal over the Portadown parade, for years the cause of intense riots and
linked to a number of sectarian murders of Catholics.

Last Saturday morning, one of the north’s most contentious parades took
place amid a huge policing operation as the PSNI forced the
anti-Catholic Orange Order through a nationalist and republican
community in north Belfast.

Orangemen hailed the march as a victory for their three-year
intimidatory protest at nearby Twaddell Avenue, where there had been
frequent disturbances and occasional violence. The illegal three-year
camp had been maintain on government property by the paramilitary UVF,
but has now been removed.

Orangemen now believe a precedent has been set for a ‘return’ parade
along the nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown, 18 years after the
Parades Commission decided to ban it.

“It was great to see our brethren in north Belfast finally getting back
home at the weekend,” said Darryl Hewitt, Portadown District Grand
Master. “We are of course still looking to finish our return parade from
1998, but it will take a lot of goodwill on both sides before that can
happen. However, we have seen it happen at Ardoyne, so who knows.”

In a statement, the nationalist Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition said
they would reject any attempt by Sinn Fein to broker a similar agreement
in Portadown, and said renewed parade protests at Drumcree would be
insensitive.

“Since 1998, and particularly from the start of this millennium, the
rerouting of contentious marches away from the Garvaghy Road by the
Parades Commission has meant that our community – and the wider
community – has enjoyed successive peaceful summers,” they said in a
statement.

“Demanding to complete the 1998 parade is not only completely absurd, it
is also highly insensitive and demonstrates a continued refusal by the
Orange Order to assume any responsibility for the violent events
associated with Drumcree in the 1990’s.”

In nationalist north Belfast, while Orangemen celebrated, there was
anger that loyalist intimidation at the protest camp had been rewarded.
Although there was some relief that the loyalist camp was being taken
down, there was strong criticism for Sinn Fein’s support for an
agreement which saw them no longer oppose sectarian parades through
Ardoyne.

As he made his way once the parade had passed, local priest Fr Gary
Donegan was loudly condemned by members of the Greater Ardoyne Residents
Collective (GARC).

Fr Donegan, who controversially replaced the more activist local priest
Fr Aidan Troy in 2008 and had prominently supported the Orange parade,
was greeted by residents with chants of “shame” and angry
recriminations.

In an unrelated incident at the same location, a local journalist also
became embroiled in a verbal dispute with a local man. The exchanges
were caught on video and condemned in the mainstream media as an example
of the “thuggery” of the GARC, which it described as a “dissident”
organisation.

SDLP Assembly member Nichola Mallon described the scenes as “vile and
frightening”, while Sinn Fein’s Gerry Mr Kelly said it was a “disgrace”
that GARC members had barracked Fr Donegan, “the same man was up every
night for the last two-and-a-half years in the area trying to make sure
that no more of our young people would get caught up and enter the
criminal justice system.”

Kelly praised the local Crumlin and Ardoyne Residents Association for
their support for for the Orange Order march, and said it heralded a new
era for Ardoyne. “Now we have the potential to move forward. I want this
to open up many more good relationships,” he said.

There was inevitable triumphalism for the Orange Order. “It was a very
good weekend not just for the Orange institution, but the community in
Belfast,” said Rev Mervyn Gibson said the Assistant Grand Master. He
credited the loyalist protest with the breakthrough. “I think if you
hadn’t had the protest camp you wouldn’t have got the agreement, because
it would have been forgot about,” he said.