Drumcree: Unionist parties say a plain reading of the law should favour Orangemen walking Garvaghy Road
Unionists have argued that a plain reading of the law should favour Portadown Orangemen being able to complete the parade on the Garvaghy Road that they have been trying to finish virtually every Sunday for the past 28 years.
The DUP, UUP and TUV both made similar legal arguments the day before the Parades Commission is expected to decide whether to allow the parade.
The commission is due to rule on an application for 60 Orange Order members to silently complete their annual parade through the largely nationalist Garvaghy Road area of Portadown, which the commission has blocked for 28 years following extensive violence linked to the parade.
The issue has come back to the fore after a legal challenge led by Jamie Bryson saw a recent refusal by the commission quashed, with the High Court criticising the commission for failing to follow due process.
The final decision is expected to be made public on Friday, with the proposed parade on Sunday.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said: “We made clear that this notification deserves a fresh and lawful assessment. Portadown District has proposed a peaceful procession of 60 men, without bands or music.
"The Commission must assess that proposal on its own facts and give clear reasons for its decision.
"People are entitled to express opposition to a parade. They are not entitled to a veto over the peaceful exercise of someone else’s rights. Equally, everyone involved has a responsibility to act lawfully."
A UUP spokesman said Lord Elliott, together with Councillors Kyle Savage and Julie Flaherty made a joint submission to the commission.
"It asks the Commission to assess the application on its own facts, act in accordance with the law, and explain how it has addressed the issues raised by the recent High Court judgment,” they said.
“A modest procession conducted peacefully is a reasonable request that should be lawfully facilitated. We welcome Portadown District’s expressed assurance that, whatever the determination, its response will be lawful and peaceful. Every political party should call for calm.”
TUV MP Jim Allister suggested that another refusal may result in a legal challenge.
“We will be exhorting them (Parades Commission) to this time determine this according to the law, and that means the starting point of Article 11.1 of the European Convention which is a presumption in favour of the right of assembly, rather than to approach this the other way round and to cause those, the applicants Portadown District, to prove why,” Press Association reported him as saying. There has to be legitimate reasons as to why it shouldn't happen, and there aren't any.”
He said it would be 60 people walking silently down a road which is only directly faced by 17 houses, which would pass in a few minutes.
However Craigavon Sinn Fein Councillor Catherine Nelson described fear in the Garvaghy Road community.
As someone who has been on the ground over the last number of weeks, she said, she had been listening to residents’ fears and anxieties.
What really hit her is “the fear that people have for their children, that they will see the humiliating scenes that they experienced back in the 1990s,” she told BBC Radio Ulster.
“For residents it isn’t about the number or the bands, it’s about what this route represents and the memories attached to it,” she added.
She then referrred to the 1995 “celebrations” by David Trimble and Ian Paisley in Portadown town centre “as if there has been a victorious defeat over the people of the Garvaghy Road”.