MP tells McGuinness: City is not a parading ‘template’

Gregory Campbell has written an open letter to Deputy First Minister Martin McGuiness following the rioting in recent days elsewhere in Ulster.

In his letter, the DUP MP takes Mr McGuiness to task for highlighting Londonderry as a ‘template’ given the ‘ethnic cleansing’ in the city.

Mr Campbell wrote: ““The events of recent days have given people cause for concern. The rioting in parts of East and North Belfast was unjustifiable and cannot be defended. The predictability of it, after the Parades Commission had given its determination was apparent to most of us, however you went to the scene of the riots in the aftermath and condemned the Orange Order. This is not the time to elaborate on the fact that the Orange Order engaged in dialogue immediately before the 12th July and in other areas like Portadown have also been calling for dialogue for years. Despite this the Parades Commission have exacerbated the problem by their determinations, these issues will have to be dealt with now and resolved long before next year’s parading season.

“My reason for writing this open letter is because of the part you can play in helping to reduce tensions rather than raising them. You referred to the solution in Londonderry and asked for it to be replicated in Belfast. Was it wise to do this? If you think Londonderry is a template then you invite people to ask why did sectarian tensions rise in the first instance...”

Mr Campbell recalled Mr McGuinness’s IRA role, and said the IRA and republicans ethnically cleansed the Maiden City “of more than 10,000 Unionists”.

He added: “Was it sensible to point out that only when there are hardly any Unionists left on the West Bank of Londonderry that a parading ‘solution’ was found that is acceptable to all sides? You also recently referred to the murder campaign the IRA were engaged in as being an ‘honourable’ one, at any time this was an unacceptable thing to say, to say it now was utterly reprehensible.

“The other development last week was when the Police in the Irish Republic found guns, ammunition and semtex and announced that some of it was Provisional IRA material. There is an onus on you, given your current support for the rule of law to indicate what information you have that may help the lawful authorities in the Republic as they attempt to source who would have been in possession of these materials before the ceasefires. You will be aware that I have raised on numerous occasions the matter of Republicans having moved some distance in recent years BUT having quite some way to go yet, perhaps now there will be some understanding of what I have been referring to.

“Leadership is what is required, not a rewriting of a failed historic murder campaign, leadership that offers the prospect of hope for the future, while you have called on the Orange Order to step forward, is it too much to expect that you will also show some?”