Tyrone show of support for Garvaghy
Breandan Mac Cionnaith and Joe Duffy, both councillors and
spokespersons for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition in Portadown,
received an official Chairman's reception at Omagh District Council
Offices on Monday evening, 26 April.
The Garvaghy Road spokesmen also recieved ``a tremendous Tyrone
welcome'' at a large public meeting attended by over 300 people in
Carrickmore on Monday night. At this event, Mac Cionnaith called for
``the wall of silence'' about the situation in Portadown to be broken
down.
The Chairman of Omagh District Council, Seán Clarke, explained his
decision to formally honour the Garvaghy Road Residents Spokesmen as
``support for the human rights of a small, beleaguered community in
Portadown'', which, he said, ``has been forced to endure orchestrated
sectarian terror for many, many years.''
He also said that he was ``delighted to welcome the two Craigavon
Councillors to Omagh, where there is very strong concern and support
for the people of the Garvaghy Road''.
At the public meeting held in the Patrician Hall, Carrickmore, the
Garvaghy Road residents' spokesmen were joined on the platform by
human rights activist Fr. Joe McVeigh and a number of elected
representatives, including local Sinn Féin Assembly members Pat
Doherty and Barry McElduff, who chaired the meeting.
In his speech, Mac Cionnaith accused the Orange Order of ``setting out
to cause offence to the Garvaghy Road Community, which is a large
community of 1,500 homes and 6,000 people.''
He outlined that there had been 127 parades since last July,
numberless attacks on Catholics in Portadown and many Catholic-owned
shops and businesses burned. He referred to the murders of Robert
Hamill and Rosemary Nelson and the forcing out of 17 catholic
families ``in the name of civil and religious liberty.''
Mac Cionnaith accused the Dublin government of ``a shameful lack of
interest'' in the plight of Portadown nationalists, reminding local
people that ``the Dublin government is supposed to be the guaranter of
our rights.''
He repeated his call for the breaking of the wall of silence about
the situation in Portadown.
Duffy praised the women of the Garvaghy Road as ``the backbone of the
campaign for human rights in Portadown'', and he detailed the history
to date of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition.
Speaking after the meeting, Mr Barry McElduff told ``The Herald'' that
Mac Cionnaith and Duffy ``were very heartened at the level of public
support they recieved in Carrickmore, Omagh, and Strabane on
Monday.''
Earlier in the day, a forum of community groups in Strabane, hosted
by the Fountain Street Community Association, met with Mac Cionnaith
and Duffy to listen to their experiences of daily life in the
Garvaghy Road and to pledge their support and solidarity.
It is understood that a locally-based ``Friends of the Garvaghy Road
Committee'' is to be set up in the next fortnight to keep local people
informed about the ongoing situation in Portadown where the Orange
Order plans to stage 16 parades in May and 30 in June, even before
the month of July.
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