Business · NY Daily Wire
Call for international mediator to resolve Drumcree dispute Image caption, Breandán Mac Cionnaith and other members of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition met the Parades Commission in Belfast on Tuesday By Community correspondent, BBC News NI Updated 16 minutes ago The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition has called for an international mediator to be brought in to try to resolve the Drumcree parade dispute in Portadown. Speaking after an 80-minute meeting with the Parades Commission, the coalition warned the dispute could take "months" to resolve. The Orange Order wants to parade along the mainly-nationalist Garvaghy Road area on Sunday afternoon.
It is one of the most contentious parade routes in Northern Ireland. The Parades Commission has begun a series of meetings as it weighs up whether to allow the march to go ahead this weekend. Breandán Mac Cionnaith, spokesperson for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, described the current mediation process on offer as "flawed".
He said an international figure from "outside Ireland" was required. Asked if he received any indication from the commission about which way their decision would go, he said he got none. More meetings this week Members of the Portadown district of the Orange Order are due to speak to the commission on Wednesday.
Political parties including Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party are also expected to talk to the commission before it makes its final decision on the planned parade. Although the commission is due to begin its deliberations on Wednesday, it could take 24 to 48 hours for its written determination to be published. Both sides in the dispute have been offered a mediation process to try to find a solution.
A Belfast-based organisation TIDES Mediation NI was appointed last week by the commission. In a statement they said: "If any party is not comfortable with the mediators that has to be respected and understood." Image source, Pacemaker Image caption, Since 1998, the Parades Commission has imposed restrictions on the Orange Order's route back from a service at Drumcree Church outside Portadown The Orange Order has accepted their offer to begin engagement. At the start of this month, the order announced plans for a "limited" parade at Drumcree.
Instead of 400 people and two bands taking part, only 60 members would march along the Garvaghy Road in silence on Sunday 27 September. The parade is due to start at 1pm at Drumcree Church and finish at Carleton Street in Portadown town centre by 2.30pm. When did the Drumcree dispute begin?
In 1998, the Parades Commission ruled that the Orange Order should not march down Portadown's Garvaghy Road on the end leg of its annual march from Drumcree Church. It was a move that sparked some of the most serious public disorder in Northern Ireland's history and led to a decades-long parading dispute. Stand-offs continued in subsequent years as members of the Order walked to police barricades in protest at the restrictions.
Protests were also held by residents living along the Garvaghy Road.
Source: BBC
