Groups fear repeat of Drumcree

GROUPS representing residents of the flash point areas of Garvaghy Road and Ormeau Road have said that the North review of parades…

GROUPS representing residents of the flash point areas of Garvaghy Road and Ormeau Road have said that the North review of parades and marches fails to guarantee that there will not be a repeat of Drumcree in 1997.

Speaking to journalists after a meeting with the Fianna Fail leader, Mr Bertie Ahern, in Leinster House yesterday, spokesmen for the residents said that, had the recommendations of the North report been in place in 1996, the events at Drumcree would still have occurred.

Mr Ahern described the establishment of a commission as "at least a step in the right direction". It was clear, however, that the British Government was "not going to move on any fast track on this issue".

Mr John Gormley of the Lower Ormeau Road Residents' Action Group said that, while the report proposed setting up a parades com mission, the RUC could overturn its decision on public order grounds. While the redefinition of the right to march - as not being an absolute right - was to be welcomed, it appeared that the British government would not implement the review anyway.

READ MORE

"The acid test of the report is whether it guarantees there will not be a repeat of Drumcree, and the answer is No," he said.

Father Eamon Stack SJ, secretary of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, said his group was disappointed that the review only really dealt with the political identity that expressed itself through parading. It did not deal with the cultural identity of the two communities.

"They have given a definition of the right to march but they have not given an equivalent statement of the rights of the communities to be free from intimidation."

There was now enormous pressure on the residents of Garvaghy Road to "step back" to allow the parade through in July, he said.

Meanwhile, the residents' groups want Irish, European and US politicians to observe Orange parades, particularly in sensitive areas.

They are also to seek a meeting with the Government. They are meeting the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Robin Eames, this weekend and have had discussions with the Catholic Primate, Dr Brady.

However, they said repeated attempts to contact the Orange Order had failed.

A Labour Party parliamentary delegation that observed a number of Orange Order marches last summer said in a statement that the provisions of the North report should be implemented at once.

Saying the report's recommendations were in line with Labour Party suggestions, Mr Joe Costello said it was regrettable that the British government had "chosen to engage in an unnecessary process of consultation about the report's recommendations".

This issue was too important to be left until after a British election, however expedient that may be to "the British government".