Long March organisers consider legal challenge over rerouting decision

The seventh leg of the Long March, a 117-mile Protestant human rights walk from Derry to Portadown, has been dominated by the…

The seventh leg of the Long March, a 117-mile Protestant human rights walk from Derry to Portadown, has been dominated by the organisers' decision to consider a legal challenge to the decision by the Parades Commission to reroute part of the march.

After a lengthy meeting with their legal representatives, the organisers could only say last night that such a challenge was "under active consideration".

The final decision on whether a challenge to the Parades Commission's ruling can be mounted will be made at noon today.

The commission decided on Monday not to allow marchers to pass through the Edward Street area of Lurgan tomorrow. The office of Ms Rosemary Nelson, the human rights lawyer killed by loyalist paramilitaries in March, is in Edward Street.

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Before leaving Glenavy, Co Antrim, at lunchtime yesterday on the 12-mile stretch to Lisburn, Co Antrim, one of the march organisers, the dissident Ulster Unionist councillor Mr Jonathan Bell, said he felt the ruling was "deplorable and incomprehensible".

"We find it frankly incomprehensible that we should be rerouted in my constituency of Lurgan. We are particularly annoyed that we are rerouted at a time when the march is led by Mrs Johnston and Mrs Graham, whose sons have given their lives on the streets of Lurgan."

Constables David Johnston and John Graham of the RUC were killed by republican paramilitaries while on patrol in the town in June 1997.

Yesterday's march was led by Ms Michelle Williamson, who lost her parents in the Shankill bombing in 1993. About 100 people negotiated the 12-mile walk to Lisburn where organisers were planning to hold a rally last night.

At a press conference which preceded the march in Glenavy, Mr Bell said the main aim of the walk was to raise awareness of the "forgotten victims".

He said: "We are looking for respect for victims, for parity of esteem for the Protestant culture and heritage and for support for deprived unionist communities."