Statement on the Parades Commission Determination on Drumcree
Today is a victory for common sense and the rule of law in the face of the hysterical and threatening behaviour of Republicans. After decades of bias and bad decision making by the Parades Commission we have seen for the first time the courts step in and the law applied correctly.
Despite the findings of the High Court which quashed the anti-Parades Commission’s most recent determination over the return parade from Drumcree Church; and the impending judge led independent review of the Commission they still choose to limit the rightful legal parade with unjustified conditions.
Despite the self regulation and generous terms offered by the Portadown brethren the Parades Commission further curtailed the exercise of the right to parade. However we comment Portadown District in their decades long vigil at the ‘hill’ and their dignified and christian approach to the recent process.
The Independent Loyal Orange Institution has stood with our Orange brethren throughout the decades of the denial of rights, and indeed we well remember the curtailment of the freedom to parade long before Drumcree. Therefore we welcome todays announcement not just as a step onto the traditional route home but as a first step to restoring the long denied Human Rights of Orangemen and women in this part of the United Kingdom.
The conditions, including limiting the number of participants to 35, are still an insult however today is a victory for common sense and the rule of law. However it will be the litmus test for Republicans and Nationalists and in particular Sinn Fein/IRA who talk of mobilisation. The hysteria and hyperbole we have heard from this community and their bandwagon of academics, press hacks and social media supporters has show them for what they are. The mask has truly slipped this week as we hear threats and appeals to a foreign Irish Government. The trouble makers of the past have been brought out of retirement as we see the real Sinn Fein/IRA return from the shadows.
It would appears that human rights, toleration, parity of esteem and a shared future don’t apply to Protestants as a few minutes of a silent march cannot be tolerated. It speaks volumes about how a Protestant minority would be treated in their new not so shared Ireland!
We wait to see the actions of Republicans when for the first time they don’t get bother way – will there be a return to violence from those who told us they wanted to ‘live in peace on the Garvaghy road’. Will those who told us they were living in fear now ‘mobile’ and just what does that mean?
Will Sinn Fein/IRA once more manipulate a situation, mobilise opposition and mount violent protests to enforce their demands when the courts and the Commission rule against them. We can never forget the damning admission of Gerry Adams that they were behind the agitation “Ask any activist in the north, ‘did Drumcree happen by accident?’, and he will tell you, ‘no’. Three years of work on the lower Ormeau Road, Portadown and parts of Fermanagh and Newry, Armagh and in Bellaghy and up in Derry.”
As they fail politically, and face internal criticism over their increasingly woke agenda will they once more manufacture grievance and agitate sectarian conflict?
