Garvaghy residents to meet parades commission

The Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition is seeking an urgent meeting with the Northern Ireland Parades Commission to discuss the…

The Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition is seeking an urgent meeting with the Northern Ireland Parades Commission to discuss the events in Portadown, Co Armagh, last July, and the commission's response.

A coalition spokesman said the commission had remained silent on the "RUC/British military invasion and curfew of the Garvaghy Road" before the Drumcree march. He criticised the failure of the commission to condemn the "many human rights abuses which occurred".

He said: "Those abuses included unprovoked beatings and assaults, the flagrant misuse of plastic baton rounds, illegal restrictions placed upon the movement of men, women and children within the area to such an extent that the majority of parishioners were unable to attend their normal Sunday masses in St John the Baptist church."

The spokesman said nationalist residents no longer had any confidence in the commission. They were seeking a meeting to voice their concerns. "All future contact between the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition and the Parades Commission, as it is currently constituted, will be largely dependent upon the outcome of our requested meeting."

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A spokesman for the commission said that the request had been received and that arrangements would be made for a meeting to take place.