Parades Commission confirms mediation firm appointment hailed by the Orange Order but rejected by Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition

The NI Parades Commission is to rule next week on an application for 60 Orange Order members to take part in a proposed Drumcree parade on Sunday 27 September.

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Residents in the Garvaghy Road area are opposed to the march.

The proposal by Portadown Orange District LOL comes after a High Court ruling last month quashed the recent decision over the Drumcree parade.

Since then the Commission has been under intense pressure and been the subject of severe criticism by the Orange Order and unionist politicians.

There has been no Orange parade on the Garvaghy Road since 1997.

Fears among residents on the Garvaghy Road that a march may be given the go-ahead this year prompted a meeting at Drumcree Centre.

The Parades Commission confirmed it appointed TIDES Mediation NI to facilitate mediation.

"For this process to progress, it will require the participation of both sides. The Parades Commission remains committed to supporting efforts to facilitate dialogue and mediation between the parties."

In response to the opposition to the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition to the appointment, the Commission said: “The Parades Commission has responded to concerns raised by the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition regarding the appointed mediators in relation to the Drumcree parading dispute.

"The Commission has clarified that TIDES Mediation NI has a network of qualified mediators and ensures that, in each mediation, those appointed are reflective of all the communities involved.”

Portadown Orange District LOL described the appointment as a ‘significant development’ and was ready to begin mediation ‘as a matter of urgency without any preconditions’.

"We wish to engage in dialogue and consultation in a respectful manner based upon principles of tolerance and inclusion,” said a statement warning that ‘mediation cannot be used as a device to obstruct or impede consideration of our upcoming notification’.

“We reiterate our unequivocal commitment to the rule of law and again make clear that these matters can only be resolved via purely peaceful and lawful means. There is no threat of any form of disorder, disruption or violence from our community and any unjust interference with the peaceful exercise of our rights will be addressed using the legal process exclusively.”

However the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, after a meeting at the Drumcree Centre in Portadown on Thursday evening, opposed the march by the Portadown District on the road and raised a concern over a ‘conflict of interest’ regarding the mediation group appointed by the Commission.

Breandan Mac Cionnaith, a spokesperson for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, raised concern over a “conflict of interest” for the proposed mediation organisation.

He said: “It is back to the drawing board for the Parades Commission.”

Sinn Féin MLA John O’Dowd invited An Taoiseach Micheál Martin to visit the Garvaghy Road and hear the ‘profound opposition’ to the march ‘directly from residents’.

Upper Bann MLA said the Irish Government has a ‘responsibility to promote the rights of residents to live free from sectarianism and an obligation to protect the progress secured over the past decades’.

Mr O’Dowd said: “My invitation to An Taoiseach is straightforward. Come to the Garvaghy Road, meet and listen to resident who have lived in peace for 28 years but are now once again facing uncertainty, anxiety and fear caused by the prospect of an unwanted sectarian march through their community.

“The application by the Orange Order to march down the Garvaghy Road is an attempt to reopen old wounds and it is being exploited by political unionism to challenge the progress that has been made.

"I am concerned that there has been no visible engagement from the Irish Government on the issue. Residents are entitled to be heard and treated with respect.”

Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart MP welcomed the Parades Commission decision on mediation.

"This is a significant breakthrough. For many years, the Commission set its face against mediation and rewarded those who obstinately refused dialogue by granting them a veto over the peaceful exercise of the fundamental rights of Portadown Orangemen.”

She praised the Portadown District who ‘acted with dignity, respected the rule of law and complied with unjust determinations’.

"The District has now notified the Commission of a dramatically scaled-down parade. It is so peaceful, modest and benign that it is scarcely believable that anyone other than the most sectarian and intolerant could rationally object to it,” she said.

“The District again reaffirmed its unequivocal commitment to peaceful and lawful means. We now await an equal commitment from those opposed to it. If that commitment is not forthcoming, the Parades Commission must confront the fundamental question of whether it will continue allowing the threat of disorder to prevail while the rights of those acting peacefully and lawfully are expunged.”

She hoped mediation can ‘produce a lasting and equitable resolution’ respecting everyone’s rights. “This is not about anyone winning or losing. It is about proportionately balancing competing rights within a lawful framework and upholding the principles of a democratic and pluralist society, including the duty to tolerate and respect the culture of others.

“I note that Sinn Fein, having begun this process by ruling out mediation or talks and declaring Drumcree “closed” and “off the table”, now appears to recognise that it is very much on the table.

"If the Irish Prime Minister wishes to hear directly from Orangemen about how their rights have been subjugated, I am sure Portadown District would be willing to engage and explain its desire to build a rights-based society founded upon mutual respect and tolerance.”

She said that it was ‘an internal matter for the UK and not the responsibility of the Irish Government describing any ‘attempt by the Irish Prime Minister to meddle’ as ‘wholly inappropriate’.