Show of support for Garvaghy
The latest in a series of groups set up to support the residents of
the Garvaghy Road held its first public meeting in Camlough, South
Armagh on Tuesday night. One hundred and twenty people packed into
the village's small community centre for the meeting, organised by
the Newry/South Armagh Garvaghy Road Support Group.
``Our community has been terrorised for the past ten months and the
Orange Order are going to up their terror campaign for the next ten
weeks and then they expect to walk in our community. Well, we will
not stand for it,'' Breandán Mac Cionnaith of the Garvaghy Road
Residents Coalition said. He and four other residents addressed the
audience and showed a ten-minute video detailing their experiences
over the last four years.
The testimony was harrowing and emotional. Donna Griffin described
seeing her teenage daughter beaten by RUC men as they dragged her
from the road during a peaceful protest; Joe Duffy told of broken
promises and double dealing; and they all described the last ten
months of almost unbearable tension as loyalist mobs and Orangemen
have held the isolated community under siege.
Breandan Mac Cionnaith warned the audience that the British
government is seeking a short-term solution to the problem. ``We are
seen as the easy option,'' he said. ``Tony Blair wants an Orange march
on the Garvaghy Road. He thinks he can use a couple of thousand
soldiers and RUC to beat us off the streets and drive the march
through and that will be it solved for another year. The only way to
prevent that is for the nationalist people throughout Ireland to make
their voices known and support our call for equality and justice.''
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