The Parades Commission is consistent in its decisions. They
go against the Orange Institution. And they are responses
to the threats of violence and subsequent disruption of law
and order from those who are opposed to Orange Order parades
and to the Orange culture and influence in this society. The
walk on Garvaghy Road is evidence of this for the demands
of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition were decisive. Refused
were the assurances of the Portadown Orangemen that their
parade on Garvaghy Road would be disciplined, dignified and
respectful of those whose religious, political and cultural
motivations are different. When an un-elected, unrepresentative
and unacceptable quango proves itself incapable of making
positive contributions it should be decommissioned. The Orangemen
have shown Drumcree is another and immediate example that
dignity and discipline typifies Orange Order parades throughout
the country. Confrontations are neither sought nor sanctioned.
The refusal of planned and manipulated residents' associations
to allow peaceful parades on public highways is the cause
of division, distress and disturbance. To deny the rights
of passage to fellow citizens for religious and political
objectives is not to be countenanced in a just and fair society.
The perpetuation of animosities is strengthened by the refusal
of the authorities to differentiate between those who parade
and those who protest against them parading when their attitudes
are different and their behaviour dissimilar. It would be
well if the two could come together in contentious areas to
agree on an acceptable arrangement for both of them. The residents
have little reason to push for agreeable solutions while the
Parades Commission can be depended upon by its decisions to
favour them. The parades issue must be resolved. How this
is done is the perennial question facing this society. There
can be no peace here while it remains unresolved. It represents
in tangible form the divisiveness of life in Northern Ireland.
The lifting of the ban on the Belfast County parade to Ormeau
Park was not a change in policy by the Parades Commission.
Their original decision was the same as the others, a reaction
to nationalist forecasts of big trouble if there was no ban.
The ban was lifted for the reasons given - a more acceptable
route via Ravenhill Road and the assurances of the Belfast
Lord Mayor, Bob Stoker, and the UUP councillors that the parade
would be well ordered, dignified and peaceful. It is a reflection
on the Parades Commission that while it had consulted with
the SDLP and other nationalists, churchmen and cross-community
groups on the proposed parade, it took the complaint of the
Lord Mayor to Alastair Graham, Chairman, on BBC Talkback,
to have him reverse the decision not to hear the unionists.
The new judgement meant that for this once the pressure from
the Orangemen and their supporters was not enough to produce
for them a favourable response. We want the parades issue
settled amicably and we shall continue to work towards that
end. The Parades Commission on its record is unlikely to make
any useful contribution to the resolving of the problem and
it should go. In the event the Belfast demonstration went
as well as the brethren promised. It was a glorious Twelfth
for weather and as another opportunity for the Institution
to show the world that the things for which it stands - Protestant
faith and culture - are those that concern a great many of
our people. The huge number of spectators and well-wishers
who lined the route and were present in Ormeau Park was the
evidence of that empathy which is its strength in this society.
The Orange Order represents those attitudes to life that remain
important to them and by which they resist the pressures of
a secularism which devalues faith and has other different
and lesser values in personal and community relations. Our
congratulations go to the County Grand Master, his Officers,
the many Marshals and others who made the Twelfth in Belfast
in 1999 most memorable and entirely successful.
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