Protestant victims group to march in Dublin today

About 1,000 people are expected to attend a march and rally in Dublin city centre today organised by the south Armagh Protestant…

About 1,000 people are expected to attend a march and rally in Dublin city centre today organised by the south Armagh Protestant victims' group, Families Acting for Innocent Relatives (Fair).

Gardaí will be mounting tight security at the "Love Ulster" parade, which will be picketed by protesters from Republican Sinn Féin.

The parade, which aims to highlight the plight of victims of republican violence and expose Government "double standards" on the peace process, will begin at Parnell Square North at 12.30pm. It will comprise six loyalist bands, Orange Order members, unionist politicians, people injured or bereaved by republican paramilitary violence, as well as members of Fair itself.

The march will proceed down O'Connell Street and D'Olier Street, past Trinity College and on to Leinster House, where the marchers will be addressed by DUP MP Jeffrey Donaldson, deputy leader of the Ulster Unionist party Danny Kennedy, Sonia Copeland of Women Raising Unionist Concerns (WRUC), and Fair spokesman William Frazer.

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No politicians from the Republic are scheduled to address the rally, but a delegation on behalf of Fair will meet Minister for Justice Michael McDowell after the rally.

Mr Frazer praised the people of the Republic for accommodating the march. "The majority of southern people are not interested in the agenda of republicanism. The fact that the march was allowed in the first place will encourage some Protestant people north of the Border to think that maybe we are putting a label on the people down South that we shouldn't be."

Before arriving in Dublin, members of Fair plan to hold two small remembrance ceremonies for the victims of republican violence along the Border in south Armagh.

"We plan to lay a wreath and put a notice board up of the names of 400 people who were killed north of the Border," said Mr Frazer.

"We will then lay a wreath on the southern side in memory of those innocent victims in the South and members of the Gardaí who were murdered by republican terrorism."

Ruairí Ó Brádaigh, president of Republican Sinn Féin, which plans to picket the "Love Ulster" parade at Parnell Square, will today lead a wreath-laying ceremony at the memorial for the 33 victims of the 1974 Dublin-Monaghan bombings.

A spokeswoman for the party said this gesture would "highlight the fact that there is no hierarchy in suffering", and he called on "all true republicans to oppose the loyalist march". She added: "In their progress through O'Connell Street, they will pass by Sackville Place, where two CIÉ busmen were killed by loyalist no-warning bombs in December 1972. Will Fair pause at that spot and pay their respects?"

Sinn Féin TD Seán Crowe called on Dublin people to ignore "what will clearly be a provocative and sectarian march on the streets of our capital city".