Apprentice Boys leader reacts to Ormeau Road parade ban: 'What more can marchers be expected to do to satisfy commission?'

Billy Moore was commenting on the decision to refuse permission for a parade to traverse the lower Ormeau Road in south Belfast as part of an upcoming Apprentice Boys annual remembrance day on November 11, involving around 800 marchers in the city.

The idea was for this particular march, comprised of about 120 people and organised by the Belfast Walker Club, to start at 12.30pm in the upper Ormeau Road and then cross the bridge separating the neighbourhood from the lower Ormeau area, before meeting up with the main contingent of marchers in Donegall Pass on the other side.

It was meant to involve a single flute band – Burntollet Sons of William.

But the Parades Commission has said that it will not permit the marchers to cross the bridge, citing fears of disorder and strains on community relations (although it does note that it has “received representation from the organiser expressing a willingness to engage with all parties to explain the history of the Apprentice Boys and discuss parading amongst other issues”).

Unusually, the commission has not set out any kind of alternative route for the marchers to follow.

Instead the parade will be confined to the upper Ormeau Road, and then marchers will get in a bus and drive the short distance to Donegall Pass.

Both the upper Ormeau and lower Ormeau neighbourhoods have changed significantly over time.

Upper Ormeau was traditionally seen as a unionist area, but is now much more mixed.

Lower Ormeau was traditionally seen as a nationalist/republican stronghold, but today it also includes large numbers of immigrants.

Nonetheless, the same tensions over parades have persisted, with lower Ormeau formerly being home to large anti-Orange murals (including one which remains on Artana Street).

Lower Ormeau was also the scene of the 1992 Sean Graham massacre, when UDA men from the other side of the bridge were involved in the murder of five random civilians.

Community relations were damaged further by claims that Orange marchers went on to make five-finger gestures to Catholic residents during a parade along the road, mocking the five dead victims.

Apprentice Boys’ general secretary Billy Moore told the News Letter that he thinks the last time they were allowed to parade down the road was in around 2001.

He said significant efforts had been made by organisers to reach out to lower Ormeau objectors over the years, but “no matter what they do” the answer is the same.

"What the Parades Commission needs to do is spell out what they want from this local club,” he said.

“I don’t see why on any arterial main route into the city centre in Belfast loyal orders should be prevented from walking it."