Where's the justice for Garvaghy Road?
by Ned Kelly
As proximity talks get under way on Wednesday with Garvaghy Road
residents and Portadown Orangemen, 10,000 Orangemen and their
Loyalist brethren are due back at the Drumcree church this Saturday.
The Parades Commission allowed the march despite expressing ``major
concern'' at the ``very real prospect of major disorder''.
It will be followed by Orange marches planned for 20, 23, 30 and 31
December and 2 January.
The illegal Loyalist siege of Garvaghy Road has now continued
unabated since July. And, as it has increased in frequency, intensity
and blind bigotry, the RUC, the British government and David Trimble
have failed to respond. Now at the eleventh hour Garvaghy residents
have again been bounced into proximity talks. These have failed to
produce a solution in the past. In fact, in previous years they have
been the harbinger of the RUC's `operationally independent' decisions
to force the Orange march down the Garvaghy Road.
SF Assembly member Dara O'Hagan, reacting to news of the proximity
talks, said, ``direct dialogue between residents' representatives and
the Orange Order is the best chance of making progress. However, any
dialogue will be best served free from intimidation and threat. If
the Orange Order are serious about addressing the problem it must
call off its siege.''
Since 5 July, over 100 mainly illegal Orange demonstrations have been
held in Portadown. The Orange Order has ignored attempts by the
Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition to find a solution. Anti-Catholic
violence across the Six Counties has not decreased as we move towards
a new political dispensation.
The impasse in Stormont, the inability to understand the central need
for an inclusive executive is mirrored in the Orange Order's
inability to accept the basic rights of Catholics and Nationalists on
the Garvaghy Road.
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