Hundreds of residents from Portadown’s Garvaghy Road packed into a public meeting on Monday night amid renewed tension over an Orange Order application to march along the flashpoint route later this month.
The gathering, addressed by Sinn Féin representatives, followed last week’s High Court ruling which overturned the Parades Commission’s most recent determination restricting the Drumcree parade.
The Parades Commission has prevented Portadown District LOL No. 1 from parading down the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road each July since 1998.
It is now considering a fresh application for a march later this month involving around 60 members of Portadown District Lodge and no bands.
Speaking after the meeting, Upper Bann Sinn Féin MLA John O’Dowd said residents’ views were unequivocal.
“The message from the hall is quite clear. Enough is enough. This community wants to live in peace,” he said.
“The message to the Orange Order is clear. This issue is closed.”
Mr O’Dowd said those in attendance spanned several generations.
“You had numerous generations in that hall. I’ve spoken in recent times about inter-generational trauma being inflicted on this community. The grandparents and the parents don’t want that for their teenage children.
“At times it was emotional in the hall, at times there was frustration and anger and fear. This community has changed dramatically – so why hinder that progress?”
Mr O’Dowd confirmed that was not discussed during the meeting.
Breandán Mac Cionnaith, of the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition, said the Parades Commission had been in touch with them and they had submitted their views.
“When I receive the commission’s reply, I will be in a better position to talk about that, but let’s remember this, an Orange march on the Garvaghy Road is not part of our agenda,” he said.
“This community has sent a full response to the Parades Commission,” he added, indicating they may comment further once that process has run its course.
DUP MP Carla Lockhart, who was not present at the meeting, issued a strongly worded statement criticising Sinn Féin’s involvement and the tone of the event.
“[On Monday night] on the Garvaghy Road we seen Sinn Fein representatives, bussed in from other parts of Northern Ireland, joining with anti-Belfast Agreement republican Brendan McKenna to try and use a purely legal question over Drumcree to whip up their shrinking base,” she said.
“Sinn Fein have had so many positions on this issue, they must have whiplash. For a judicial ruling which was – they said – technical and irrelevant, they have certainly managed to whip themselves into a state of emotional turmoil.
“They keep repeating incoherent and vacuous phrases like ‘no going back’. Going back where?
“If the subtle hint is back to violence and disorder, they ought to explain who precisely would or who is proposing to take us back?
“It is certainly not the Orange Order or unionist and loyalist community.
“Do they still rule out any talks or mediation, or, as ever; will that position also be abandoned once the realisation dawns that stamping the feet and threatening no longer works?
“I do welcome that it appears from tonight’s press conference, that the issue of mediation is no longer rejected. That is a welcome development.
“The unionist, loyalist and Orange community will remain calm and continue to pursue this straightforward legal issue in that arena. We will not be distracted by Sinn Fein cosplaying as 1990s republicans, nor sucked into their efforts to whip up tension.
“This issue must be resolved within the law, and the law alone. I note Sinn Fein have still failed to match the pledge of our community in that regard.
“Sinn Fein’s talk about ‘rights’ has been exposed as being little more than an exercise in convenient labelling for their political demands. A truly rights-based society, which we seek, must be based upon the equitable and proportionate balancing of the rights of all sections of the community.
“Sinn Fein believe they can stamp their feet and get their own way, they have yet to grasp what has occurred and the new reality. Once they do, it is time to come to the table and find a fair and balanced solution which respects the rights of all citizens, rather than the subjugation of rights endured by unionism for 28 years.”
