Ormeau body to protest at Apprentice Boys' parade

The Lower Ormeau Concerned Community in Belfast has announced plans for rallies on Friday night and Saturday morning to protest…

The Lower Ormeau Concerned Community in Belfast has announced plans for rallies on Friday night and Saturday morning to protest at the decision by the Parades Commission to allow two dozen local Apprentice Boys to parade down the Ormeau Road.

The Belfast parade is a so-called feeder parade for Apprentice Boys travelling to Derry for the main Relief of Derry celebrations.

Details of the rallies were announced at a news conference in the Bogside, Derry, yesterday held jointly by the LOCC and the Bogside Residents Group.

Mr Donnacha Mac Niallais, spokesman for the residents, said the commission's decision made it almost impossible for his group to reach an accommodation with the Apprentice Boys on the Derry parade, which more than 10,000 members of the Loyal Order are expected to attend.

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The BRG said, however, that it would still attend today's planned meeting with the Apprentice Boys, which will be chaired for the third time by two local businessmen, Mr Garvan O'Doherty and Mr Brendan Duddy, on behalf of the Town Centre Management Committee.

Mr Gerard Rice, spokesman for the LOCC, said the first of the Belfast protest rallies would be on Friday at 7 p.m. The second would coincide with the early-morning Apprentice Boys parade along the Lower Ormeau Road.

"This decision by the Parades Commission will make it very difficult for me to persuade my community to continue with dialogue," said Mr Rice.

"It is quite clearly aimed at the Davy Joneses and the Noel Liggetts, at the loyal orders and at the Orange Order, who all refused to talk and to enter into dialogue. It represents a return to day one.

"This decision obviously results from the talks between the Orange Order and Tony Blair."

Mr Mac Niallais described the implications of the commission's decision as very serious.

"Our aims are to make it possible for the Apprentice Boys to celebrate their culture in a respectful and dignified manner and to secure the right for people in isolated and beleaguered nationalist communities to live free from imposed sectarian parades.

"This decision has, at a stroke, destroyed our ability to deliver these objectives. We cannot see how we will be able to deliver an agreement on this Saturday's parade in Derry if the Apprentice Boys go ahead with their parade in Belfast.

"The Parades Commission's decision is ill thought out and has undermined our efforts."