Portadown Orange must move
After meeting with new Stormont minister George Howarth on Tuesday 13 September, Portadown Orange Order spokesperson David Jones accused the Garvaghy Road Residents Association of opting out of the latest series of talks over the Drumcree impasse.
The evidence of the last five years of the so-called Drumcree crisis, however, exposes the absurdity of such Orange Order accusations.
Repeated calls by the Garvaghy Road residents for dialogue with the Orange Order in the 1990s were met with a stoney silence as the Orangemen insisted on their, ``right to march''.
In 1996, the Drumcree stand-off was settled in the Orangemen's favour when the RUC batoned nationalists off the road as residents' leaders were offside in a nearby factory, where they had been invited for talks.
The apparent movement heralded by British Secretary of State Mo Mowlam's ``shuttle diplomacy'' in 1997 ended with an invasion of the road in the early hours and a 12-hour military curfew to facilitate the Loyal Orders.
In 1998, the Orange Order was, effectively, embarrassed off `Drumcree Hill' by the killing in Ballymoney of the three Quinn brothers.
At no time during these years, despite the sectarian killings of Catholics which accompanied the annual Drumcree impasse, did the Orange Order attempt real dialogue to find a lasting solution.
Their recently acquired enthusiasm for talks should then, be taken with a pinch of salt and a large dose of cynicism.
This is especially true given recent events on the Ormeau Road.
The most tenuous pretence at dialogue by the Ballynafeigh Apprentice Boys with Ormeau Road residents was rewarded by the Parades Commission with a march.
Is this the real intention behind the present willingness of Portadown Orangemen to enagge in some form of dialogue - ``talk to walk''?
The Orange Order still refuses to talk or negotiate directly with the legitimate representatives of the Garvaghy Road residents. They still insist they want last year's march as well as this year's and ignore the hurt they have inflicted on that community whose legal representative, Rosemary Nelson, was killed as a direct result of her representation.
This newspaper believes that it is time for Portadown No 1 District LOL to lift its 440-day siege of Garvaghy Road before it accuses anyone else of opting out.
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