Belfast Parades On DUP Agenda

The DUP has held a meeting with the Parades Commission - an organisation it openly wants to abolish - after two Orange lodges had restrictions placed upon a forthcoming Belfast march and another contentious demonstration also faced restrictions.

As well as the loyal order holding internal meetings to decide whether to seek a review from the Parades Commission after it banned Ligoniel True Blues LOL 1932 and Earl of Erne LOL 647 from passing the Ardoyne shops to join a traditional parade, the DUP has again met the contentious organisation.

The Ardoyne ban came after fierce rioting last July where republicans attacked the police over the Twelfth parades.

It has now seen the two lodges barred from using a half-mile stretch of road between the junction of Woodvale Parade and Woodvale Road and the Hesketh Road-Crumlin Road junction as a route for a feeder parade for the Tour of the North on Friday.

Prior to last week's decision, the group had been in talks with the Cultural Forum Crumlin Ardoyne Residents' Association [CARA] to find a resolution.

However, the Parades Commission ruling said it had been in dialogue with both sides, but no agreement had been reached and it had imposed the restrictions.

A spokesperson for the Parades Commission confirmed it had met with representatives from GARC, but stressed that residents' group was "not part of the process".

This week, a DUP delegation of North and West Belfast representatives met with the Parades Commission to also discuss the forthcoming Whiterock parade.

DUP Assembly Members William Humphrey and Nelson McCausland as well as City Councillors Brian Kingston and Gareth McKee met with the commission at Windsor House on Tuesday.

"The continued existence of the Parades Commission, and indeed continued objections to cultural celebrations like the Whiterock parade is a historical anachronism that belongs to a different era.

"Northern Ireland is moving forward and we would urge the commission to reflect that in their determination and for the Republican objectors to end their exclusionary protests.

"Springfield Road is a shared space: everyone should be able to share it without fear or intimidation.

"We have asked the Parades Commission to review their decision to restrict the numbers of people passing through the gates at Workman Avenue," the statement said.

"There is absolutely no justification for continuing with the practice of splitting the parade up and passing some people through an industrial estate and a small number through the gates when it would be simpler and quicker to allow the entire body of participants to process through the gates.

"In the past, the commission has dictated that a single drumbeat be the only musical accompaniment allowed on the Springfield Road. Such restrictions belong in the past. In many ways, a single drumbeat can actually heighten tension, whereas a selection of sacred music is hardly likely to do so or cause offence to any reasonable person.

"Failure by the commission to move from the current restrictive position would reward intransigence by republicans.

"The rest of society is moving forward, it is time for the commission and republicans to do likewise”, said the DUP representatives.

(BMcC/GK)