Unionists in 'parades crisis' talks

26/06/2005 - 16:05:07
The Democratic Unionist Party is meeting the British government this week to discuss what it sees as a parades crisis following the postponement of the Orange Order’s annual Whiterock parade in Belfast at the weekend.

The order put off the parade yesterday and mounted a protest march in the loyalist Shankill Road area after the Parades Commission ordered that participants would not be allowed to march along around 100 metres of the nationalist Springfield Road and would have to divert through the site of a disused factory.

With the height of the summer marching season fast approaching with the July 12 parades, the DUP said they were seeking assurances from ministers.

North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds, his wife Diane, Assembly member for West Belfast, and North Belfast MLA Nelson McCausland, said in a joint statement the unionist community needed to have its rights recognised and upheld.

“Our purpose will be to lay out the severe strains that have been placed on our people by the disgraceful attacks on legal and peaceful parades and the bizarre and disgraceful actions of the Parades Commission.”

They said they would be seeking assurances over the Whiterock parade and also the Twelfth parades.

“Having noted the comments by security minister Shaun Woodward last week concerning defects in the Parades Commission consultations and his willingness to address the wider process, we will be exploring the need to build urgently on the opportunity this has presented for long term change,” they said.

There was a clear responsibility on the government to tackle the issue of parades and not hide behind the unelected and unaccountable quango which was causing instability and anger on the streets, said the DUP.

“In the short term it is essential that the Whiterock parade issue is resolved. That parade has only been postponed. It is still outstanding,” added the trio.

They said that after the attacks on a parade and its supporters in the Ardoyne area last week, and the Whiterock decision, the Orange order and unionist community had been responsible, mature and law-abiding.

But they warned that nobody , either in government or elsewhere, should ignore the “deep-seated anger and frustration that exists in the unionist community of north and west Belfast”.

The added: “That community now needs to have its rights recognised and upheld.”