Proximity talks break up
Orangemen insist on march
by Laura Friel
``The Orange Order succeeded in holding the entire process
hostage,'' said Breandan MacCionnaith of the Garvaghy Road
Residents Coalition as proximity talks ended without agreement
last Tuesday night, ``by insisting that any progress whatsoever
was entirely and completely conditional upon securing a march on
the Garvaghy Road this year''.
Despite the fact that the issue was primarily a conflict between
the Orange Order and British government commitment to uphold the
Parades Commission's decision to re route the Drumcree march,
Garvaghy residents said they had entered into proximity talks ``to
play our part in assisting the search for a long term solution to
the marching issue'' but the Orange Order had not only insisted on
marching on the Garvaghy Road this year but also ``demanded an
unequivocal guarantee of parades in all future years''.
Describing the way forward as ``not through force but through
dialogue,'' the residents expressed their disappointment at the
failure of the Orange Order to engage ``constructively, positively
and directly'' during the process. While the Garvaghy Coalition
had hoped for a long term resolution through mutual respect and
trust, ``by refusing to even consider entering a room with the
GRRC and talking indirectly through an independent chairperson
showed a complete lack of respect for the nationalist community''.
In detailed proposals presented to the British government and
Orange Order, the residents' group hoped to ``secure the rights of
all people of Portadown''. The proposals included the
establishment of a civic forum to address divisions in the city
by establishing social and economic programmes funded directly by
the British government. ``These are basis resources which have
been unfairly denied to the nationalist community over many years
through structured discrimination,'' said MacCionnaith. ``In
redressing those imbalances the British government would be
honouring commitments made in the Good Friday Agreement.''
Leaving the talks, the facilitators, Roy Magee and Peter Quinn
said they hoped to reconvene ``as soon as possible''. A delegation
of Orangemen from Portadown left without comment.
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