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6 minutes ago Angus Harron BBC News NI PA Media Jon Burrows said politicians need to "resolve" the standoff rather than "mutliplying" it Politicians should make a "collective appeal to contain" the parading dispute in Drumcree, according to the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader. Jon Burrows called on other parties to join him in emphasising the need to "resolve the dispute and not multiply it". It is the twelfth day of deadlock between residents of the Garvaghy Road and the local district lodge of the Orange Order over the proposed march in Portadown, County Armagh.
On Wednesday, a representative for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition (GRRC) said the disagreement was "no longer just about the Garvaghy Road" after a meeting with 11 other nationalist residents' groups. Breandán Mac Cionnaith and Linda O'Neill of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition spoke to the media after meeting 11 nationalist residents' groups on Wednesday After the meeting, Linda O'Neill of the GRRC said: "The Orange Order needs to take responsibility, and so do the Parades Commission for making this issue bigger than the Garvaghy Road, this is no longer just about the Garvaghy Road, this is about all of us." She said support from all over Ireland was "propping up our community right now; we have never seen support and solidarity like it". The Portadown District Lodge have said they are prepared to take further legal action to try to allow the 35 Orangemen to march from Drumcree along the route approved by the Parades Commission.
At a separate press conference on Wednesday, Portadown District Master Nigel Dawson said the lodge would "not be bullied or threatened by any residents' group who step outside the law". He said he was "very confident" in the support across Northern Ireland for their march adding "there's no threat to our parades. They're legal".
Speaking to Good Morning Ulster , Burrows said it might be "easier" to resolve the situation if the police were to bring "consequences at the door of those who have broken the law, from the first minister down". O'Neill has defended joining the protests, saying she was "proud" to stand with the residents and adding that "when the law is wrong I will stand firmly against it". Burrows also said he thought it would be a "mistake" for the Secretary of State Sir Chris Bryant to withdraw permission for the parade.
"What we need to hear is political leaders saying we must not open these disputes across the country." Claire Hanna, the leader of the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), also said there was a need to "get a grip" of the situation "before it engulfs the wider political system". She said her party's view was that the secretary of state "can and should rescind the permission" for the parade. She said that "until he does that, there is a desperate need for sensible voices within unionism and the Orange Order to ask that lodge to reconsider, because there is the potential for this to scale out into other areas".
The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) has said the secretary of state is continuing to engage with all parties for a resolution. What is the Drumcree dispute? PA Media Orangemen turn away from a police barricade close to Drumcree Church formed to prevent them entering the Garvaghy Road on the eighth day of the stand-off It is more than a week since the decision to allow an Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road on Sunday, 27 September.
That morning, up to 1,000 people - including politicians such as Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill - blocked the road, preventing Orangemen marching from Drumcree Church a mile to the west. Since then, residents have maintained a constant presence around the road while Orangemen have also repeatedly tried to march the route before being turned back by police. The stand-off has caused considerable political fallout in Northern Ireland, with First Minister O'Neill facing a vote of no confidence over her involvement in the protest.
The vote is due to fail due to it requiring cross-community support at the Northern Ireland Assembly. PA Media Politicians, including Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill, blocked the road, preventing Orangemen marching from Drumcree Church to Garvaghy Road on 27 September Drumcree was one of Northern Ireland's most serious parading disputes, when stand-offs in the mid-to-late 1990s over attempts by the Orange Order to march along the Garvaghy Road were accompanied by riots, roadblocks and killings. When the Orange Order was prevented by police from walking down the route in July 1995, there was a tense stand-off.
It was the same for the next three years. The Parades Commission began operating in 1998 to regulate parades and try to defuse tension around marches. Its decision not to allow a march down the Garvaghy Road that summer has been challenged by the order for the past three decades.
Source: BBC
