Drumcree: Portadown Orangemen issue statement after meeting Parades Commission on Garvaghy Road parade
Portadown Orangemen have said they will meet "with anyone" to talk about resolving the Garvaghy Road parading dispute, after having met the Parades Commission about their proposed parade this Sunday.
The commission is currently considering the application for the Drumcree parade to complete its traditional route along the Portadown thoroughfare - which has been refused for 28 years.
The Drumcree stand-off dominated headlines in the 1990s, as nationalist residents of the Garvaghy Road were resolutely opposed to the parade passing through the area, leading to violent clashes for several summers.
The issue has come back to the headlines after a recent High Court challenge, led by Jamie Bryson, saw the commission severely criticised for failing to follow due process in refusing the parade - quashing the latest refusal to allow the parade.
Nationalists say the issue has been settled for 28 years and should not be 'reopened'; however, Portadown Orangemen counter that it was never closed as they have applied to complete their parade every Sunday for 28 years.
After meeting with the Parades Commission today, Portadown District Master Nigel Dawson said they presented over 60 pages of legal submissions with 100 pages of evidential material.
"We made our continued position clear again that the Commission has no credibility within any section of our community, and we continue to make the case they are infected by public law bias and predetermination," he said.
Their position is very simple, he said: "This is a legal question, and when you properly apply the legal tests, the outcome should be inevitable."
He argued that they want to ensure "a rights-based society, which proportionately gives effect to the rights of everyone in a balanced way".
However, for 28 years, he claimed, their rights have been "subjugated", whilst the demands of nationalists have been "elevated".
The Orangemen have "stretched" themselves in their latest application by offering to take only sixty people down the Garvaghy Road, walking in complete silence, he said.
"The nature of this notification is one by which we have voluntarily limited our own rights, far beyond what we ought to have to in any pluralist democratic society."
He added: "We have made ourselves available for mediation, without any precondition. We have offered to go to the Garvaghy Road and meet at a venue of Residents’ choice; we have offered for a catholic priest to become involved in mediating if that is what those opposed to the exercise of our rights want. We will talk to anyone, at any place, and at any time."
He suggested their opponents have moved their position significantly - having initially rejected any suggestion of mediation, but now proposing an international mediator and a process which, he said, may take months to resolve.
"However, this must not, and cannot, be used as a delaying tactic or ‘jam tomorrow’ in order to avoid the Commission making the only decision rationally open to them if the law is properly applied."
He added: "Whatever happens this week, it should now be very clear that anyone who believed Drumcree was “off the table”, “closed” or “settled” is very wrong.
"This is an issue which is not going away, and we have no intention of allowing it to do so. For 28 years, 52 Sundays a year, we have peacefully and lawfully expressed our opposition to the continued denial of our human rights."
He concluded: "We will meet, mediate or engage in dialogue with anyone, at any place, and at any time. We will do so in a spirit of generosity and in good faith."