Orange Order vows to march route at later date
The Orange Order today warned it is determined to march along its route in west Belfast before the autumn after today’s contentious parade was postponed.
The Order’s North and West Belfast Parades Forum decided to postpone the march in the Whiterock area of the city after the Parades Commission rerouted it.
Residents in the nationalist Springfield Road area welcomed the abandonment of today’s march.
However, DUP councillor and Orangeman Nelson McCausland said the Order was determined to march in the area without being re-routed, as the forum decided to stage a protest parade in the Shankill area instead.
“The protest parade today is only the start and we would encourage people to support that protest parade. Then over the coming weeks and months that campaign strategy will unfold,” Mr McCausland said.
“It undoubtedly will include such things as an exploration of a legal challenge to what the parades commission has done.
“But in the end we are determined to secure our basic right to parade there to the Whiterock hall as brethren have done for the past 48 years.”
The Orange Order’s North and West Belfast Parades Forum decided to postpone the march in the Whiterock area after the Parades Commission rerouted it.
Northern Ireland’s Parades Commission refused to lift restrictions on the parade, despite several attempts by the Orange Order to overturn it.
