Letter: The only way to break the Parades Commission’s war on unionist culture is to make it unworkable

The Parades Commission determinations are based on a fundamentally flawed premise.

The contested space, the area passing the Ardoyne shops, is the part of the public arena whereby two competing sides assert their Convention rights. It is therefore within that space that the balancing exercise between the competing rights must be conducted, and a solution arrived it which restricts the exercise of each sides rights- in other to accommodate the other- to the minimum necessary. But the Parades Commission do not arrive at any balanced outcome in respect of the contested space, rather in the area which matters and where the rights collide, nationalism is given everything and the loyal orders given nothing. The Parades Commission seem to think that because they allow the loyal orders to parade the rest of the route, which is not contested, this is a fair balance. But it isn’t; the balance must be found within the contested area, not by simply removing the loyal orders from that area and in effect imposing a complete ban on their exercise of basic human rights in any stretch of road which is contested, on the basis they can walk another stretch of road.

This point hasn’t been fully appreciated or pressed and it ought to be. The Parades Commission also say for a parade the route cannot be broken up. This is simply wrong. The legislation says nothing of the sort and if a band or Lodge wanted to apply to parade from A to B, then B to C, there is obviously nothing preventing this. The Orange should make an application to flush this out and force the commission to deal with a parade only going from each boundary of the contested space. The only way to break the Parades Commission’s war on unionist culture is to make it unworkable and to stop recognising it. If there was a mass coordinated approach of this sort of civil disobedience it couldn’t be policed, and it would force the legislature to realise they need to come up with something that can command the consent of the governed.

Jamie Bryson, Donaghadee