Parades body is asked to review its stance after disturbances

The garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition has asked the Parades Commission to review its position on future Orange Order parades…

The garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition has asked the Parades Commission to review its position on future Orange Order parades in Portadown, Co Armagh, after disturbances there.

Members of the coalition met the commission yesterday afternoon in Belfast, after two consecutive nights of violence along Corcrain Road. This road and Charles Street are the routes at issue.

After the meeting Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, spokesman for the coalition, said: "People have to bear in mind that families along that stretch of the road have been subject to attacks, have been intimidated from their homes and have been the target of regular abuse from loyalists."

He denied that he mentioned the outward leg of this year's Drumcree parade. "We went to discuss the whole issue of these parades along that road," he said.

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Residents raised with the commission what they term the marchers' "non-compliance" with conditions imposed on recent parades. They said a meeting has been requested with the Northern Ireland Security Minister, Mr Adam Ingram, to discuss recent disturbances.

Mr David Jones, spokesman for the Portadown Orangemen, said: "It shows that a law-breaker's charter was brought in with the Parades Commission and now Breandan Mac Cionnaith is using this charter to his own ends."

Earlier the coalition criticised comments attributed to a DUP Assembly member, Mr Paul Berry. He was reported to have said that residents were trying to prevent Orangemen from parading at Drumcree and that the coalition would not be stopping Orangemen "this July", adding that if it was "a matter of taking the law into our own hands, then we are going to have to do it."

The coalition said the comments were "inflammatory."

Later, when asked by The Irish Times about his statement, Mr Berry amended it to saying that taking the law into their own hands "would be considered".

The North's First Minister, Mr David Trimble, who is MP for the area, expressed his disappointment at the developments, and in particular the violence at Corcrain Road.

"I had hoped that what we have been doing, and what the other representatives had been doing, was having a positive effect. I am very disappointed at what has happened, particularly Tuesday night's attack on what is called the outward route, and that seems to be opening up a new front. I think that is a very retrograde step."

He added: "I would like to suggest actually to those who are arranging demonstrations and pro tests in support of Portadown Orangemen that it might be a good idea if they concentrate those at Drumcree."

Ms Brid Rodgers, the SDLP Assembly member for Upper Bann, welcomed Mr Trimble's comments. She said people along the Corcrain route "have hardly had a night's sleep" since last July.