London hears of Garvaghy misery
BY FERN LANE
Don Mercer from the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition received a standing
ovation when he addressed a crowded public meeting in the Grand Committee
Room in Westminster on Wednesday 23 June.
The meeting had been organised by the London Friends of Garvaghy Road to
call for support for the residents of the Garvaghy Road in the run up to
this weekend's proposed march by the Orange Order, a march which the Order
is insisting will go ahead, despite the ban by the Parades Commission
earlier this week. The group urged Members of Parliament to visit the area
over the coming week in order to better understand the atmosphere of
intimidation which pervades Portadown.
Sinn Fein's Dara O'Hagan was also on the platform and demanded that
nationalist residents receive proper protection under the law, something
which at present manifestly does not happen. MPs John McDonald, Jeremy
Corbyn and Tony Benn, academic and human rights campaigner Robbie McVeigh
and Paul May from the Robert Hamill Campaign also took part in the debate.
Don Mercer said: ``The people of the Garvaghy Road are actually under siege;
not the Orange Order. The Orange Order has been free to go to Drumcree
church and back into Portadown town centre with no interference from the
RUC or the British Army. So to say that they are under siege is a
nonsense.''
Of the murder of Rosemary Nelson, he told the audience that ``it was a
tremendous blow to the people of the Garvaghy Road because Rosemary was the
voice of our people, she was our only voice; she was our legal
representative, she advised us on how to go about discussions with people -
government officials and so on - and once she was murdered our people fell
apart for a while. But it's a strong community and they will survive it.''
He also spoke about the mounting toll of violence inflicted on Catholic
residents who venture into the town. ``A guy called Tony Millsap, 22 years
of age, coming from St Patrick's, went into a chip shop in Portadown town
centre. Four Loyalists walked in and buried a car jack in his skull. He is
still living, if you can call it living. He's blind, he can't hear and he
needs 24-hour-a-day care. This is the reality of life in Portadown if you
are a Catholic. It is a Protestant town for a Protestant people.''
He referred to the murder of Elizabeth O'Neill, murdered by loyalists
because she had married into a Catholic family, saying: ``I was bought up as
a Catholic but my father was a Protestant who married a Catholic, my
grandfather was a Protestant who married a Catholic.'' But growing up in his
community, he said, ``it was unheard of that anyone in a `mixed' marriage
would be threatened or forced to leave their home. But that wasn't the case
in Protestant areas.
``What we need is people like yourselves, especially British MPs, to make
the effort to come to the Garvaghy Road on 4 July to witness for
themselves. We have nothing to hide. And what I would say is this; when you
do come, feel free to talk to both communities because we want you to do
that. But I'll just remind you that 100% of the people on the Garvaghy Road
voted yes to the Good Friday Agreement; the people standing on Drumcree
Hill were 100% against the Agreement.''
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