UUP urged to cut Orange Order ties

The former SDLP Employment and Learning Minister said the order’s “attack on the Agreement raises questions about the Ulster Unionists relationship with the Order.

“Given that the Orange Order is peddling a clear anti-Agreement stance, the Ulster Unionist Party must ask itself whether it can justify giving a block vote to the order in the Ulster Unionist Council.

“For far too long we have seen the Orange Order hijack our streets.

“It is intolerable for it to be able to hijack any political party.

“It is long past the time for the UUP to sever all links with the Orange Order and affirm itself as an unashamedly pro-Agreement party.

“Orangemen at 18 demonstrations across Northern Ireland supported resolutions which claimed the Good Friday Agreement was unable to remove the threat of violence in Northern Ireland and incapable of providing fair and just government.”

The Grand Orange Lodge’s resolution also said: “Until there is proof that the IRA is gone and its terrorist activities have ceased there should be no place for Sinn Fein in the government of Northern Ireland.

“We have been given ample reason to doubt the sincerity and honesty of the government of the United Kingdom working in tandem with foreign governments and we have deep concerns about their proposals for our future.

“Bitter experience has taught us that their attempts to buy off Irish nationalism and Irish republicanism has been to the disadvantage and hurt of the unionist people and the Union.”

The resolution also condemned policing reforms and expressed regret at the divisions within unionism.

The Ulster Unionist Party has been under pressure since the creation of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998 to modernise itself and sever the Orange link.

However with the UUP deeply divided in a row over policy, its party leader David Trimble would be loathe to take such action at this stage.

Supporters of Mr Trimble on Friday launched a second bid to discipline three rebel MP’s – Jeffrey Donaldson, the Rev Martin Smyth and David Burnside for resigning the party whip in the row over policy.

The three MPs were very much visible at yesterday’s Orange Order celebrations and Mr Donaldson launched a stinging attack on his party leader accusing him of pursuing a vendetta against them.

Mrs Hanna said today it was “disappointing that the Orange Order, a supposedly religious organisation, used the Twelfth of July parades to make a highly political speech against the Agreement.

“The reality is that the Good Friday Agreement was voted for by the overwhelming majority of people – North and South (in Ireland).

“It is the best and indeed the only way forward for all of the people here.

“While many may be fed up with how the political process is being managed, it is my view from the countless meetings I have had with community groups, business leaders and people on the ground that the vast majority still support the agreement and want it to work.”