THE ORANGE Order has been accused of stirring up tensions in Co Armagh after announcing that its weekly protest parade over the ongoing Drumcree dispute will now double in frequency.
The order already marches there each Sunday but says that from tomorrow it will add a Wednesday march until the impasse is lifted.
Portadown district master Darryl Hewitt said the decision was the result of Parades Commission chairman Peter Osborne’s suggestion earlier this month that the lodge reconsider its Sunday marches in order to build better relations with nationalist residents opposed to them.
The Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition (GRRC), who are against the order’s attempts to march there, said the increase was going to have the opposite effect.
“We keep hearing from politicians and church leaders that people do not want to turn the clock back to the past,” he said. “But the message does not seem to be getting through to Portadown District Lodge. The only thing this new parade will achieve is to heighten tensions.”
But DUP Upper Bann MP David Simpson said the residents were the ones refusing to talk. “For several years Portadown district [lodge] has called on the GRRC to enter dialogue, without preconditions, regarding the annual parade. However, each year they decline the offer of talks,” he said.