Drumcree decision ‘opportunity to gain confidence of unionist community’

The Parades Commission decision over the Drumcree parade is an “opportunity” to win the confidence of the unionist community, DUP leader Gavin Robinson has said.He was speaking after leading a delegation from his party for what he described as a “positive engagement” with the body in Belfast on Wednesday afternoon.The commission is expected to rule later on an application for 60 Orange Order members to take part in a proposed procession on Sunday September 27, after being heavily criticised by unionist politicians last month when a High Court ruling quashed its most recent determination over the march.The decision is not expected to be made public until Friday.The Parades Commission has blocked the order from marching along the Garvaghy Road in July every year since 1998.The Portadown District of the Orange Order, backed by the three unionist parties, has said it will be a much reduced number of people taking part in a silent parade for a short time on the Garvaghy Road.The Drumcree parade dominated headlines in the 1990s when violent clashes and political tension necessitated a major security operation for several summers, as Garvaghy Road residents rejected the march passing through the community.The Orange Order also met with the commission on Wednesday.Portadown Deputy District Master Alastair Power said the issue is “not going away”.“Whatever happens this week it should now be very clear that anyone who believes Drumcree was off the table, closed or settled is very wrong,” he said.“This is an issue which is not going away. We have no intention of allowing it to do so. For 28 years, 52 Sundays of the year, we have peacefully and lawfully expressed our opposition to the continued denial of our human rights.“This past month has demonstrated that when nationalists use language of human rights, this is deployed simply as a label for whatever their latest political plan is.“We fully expect a positive determination. This is not a difficult case, there is only one rational outcome.“Finally, we once again extend the hand of friendship to those opposed to us. We will meet, mediate or engage in dialogue with anyone in any place at any time.”Read MoreMr Robinson said they had had a “positive engagement” and described an “opportunity to right a wrong which has been long-running and a sore within the Portadown and Upper Bann area for the last 28 years”.“We took the opportunity to indicate to the Parades Commission our continued dissatisfaction with how these circumstances arose, their failure to comply with their statutory obligations, their failure to promote mediation and the awful way in which they have considered this issue up until now,” he said.“They have indicated publicly that they want to restore confidence within our unionist community and the wider community of Northern Ireland, and now they have the opportunity to do so.“To our mind, to the Portadown District’s mind and to their legal advisers there is no alternative than to recognise the fundamental priority of the application, the proportionality that should be ascribed, the way in which there has been a constructive application made, which has been moderated in size, scale and impact, and also a consideration that whenever people talk of community relations in Northern Ireland, they mean nothing if a neighbour cannot accommodate another.”He added: “The choice is clear for the Parades Commission, do they apply the law, do they restore some level of confidence, do they look at the human rights obligations they are under and approve this application, or do they succumb to this sad, tired and negative approach which seems to be that the intolerance of others is paramount in their process.“It can’t be right, and I hope that they do make the right determination.”Sinn Féin and the TUV are set to meet separately with the commission later, while the SDLP and residents group met with the body on Tuesday.(Left to right) Sinn Féin MP John Finucane, councillor Catherine Nelson, First Minister Michelle O’Neill and MLA John O’Dowd (Niall Carson/PA)PA WireCraigavon Sinn Féin Councillor Catherine Nelson described fear in the Garvaghy Road community, and said 3,500 have signed a petition against the parade on the road.“As someone who has been on the ground over the last number of weeks, listening to residents, listening to their fears, their anxieties, old wounds reopened and many people retraumatised, and actually what has really hit me is the fear that people have for their children, that they will see the humiliating scenes that they experienced back in the 1990s,” she told BBC Radio Ulster.“This is a peaceful community, a community that has built bridges, tore down peace walls.“This is a community that allows the parade to go out completely uncontested to the church.“They tolerate this march and are a community that just wants to live in peace, and want peace for their children.“That is something that we will bring to the Parades Commission today.”She said there has been peace in Portadown for the last 28 years, adding until the “recent antics of those agitating towards a parade in recent weeks”.“For residents it isn’t about the number or the bands, it’s about what this route represents and the memories attached to it,” she added.“It has been made clear by those commentating that this on Sunday is not the end, in fact it is the beginning, and as well as that when the parade ends on the Garvaghy Road it will be met by supporters and bands, and residents are thinking back to those 1995 celebrations of (David) Trimble and (Ian) Paisley as if there has been a victorious defeat over the people of the Garvaghy Road.”TUV MP Jim Allister has raised the possibility of a legal challenge (PA)PA WireTUV MP Jim Allister suggested that another refusal of the parade may result in a legal challenge.“We will be exhorting them (Parades Commission) to this time determine this according to the law, and that means the starting point of Article 11.1 of the European Convention which is a presumption in favour of the right of assembly, rather than to approach this the other way round and to cause those, the applicants Portadown District, to prove why,” he said.“There has to be legitimate reasons as to why it shouldn’t happen, and there aren’t any.“We’re talking about 60 people walking down a stretch of road on which they are directly facing 17 houses, and passing it in a few minutes, no music, no bands and yet there are those who are determined to cause themselves to be offended because they simply do not want any Orange feet on the Garvaghy Road.”