Write a comment
Newry, Mourne and Down District Council has called for the Prime Minister and the Taoiseach to “stand with” Garvaghy Road residents and engage with all sides over a disputed Orange Order March in Portadown.
An emergency motion in Newry, Mourne and Down caused an hour’s standstill in the chamber over legal advice on allowing the proposal to be heard at the full council meeting last night, 5 October.
Council chairperson Glyn Hanna who had initially sent the motion to the equality and good relations group then made a U-turn decision to hear the debate in chambers.
Councillor Hanna said: ”Though I am disappointed in what has happened here I believe that we could be damaging community relations on what we are doing here tonight.
“I know some people might not have any worries about it, but I do.”
An ongoing stand-off has seen politics here at crisis point after an Orange Order march due to take place from Drumcree church through the Garvaghy Road last month was blocked by large crowds of protesters.
In chambers, the emergency motion was then amended by the proposer to include both the Westminster and Dublin governments.
Bringing forward the motion, Mournes councillor Michael Rice said: “This council recognises the UK and Irish government’s role as co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement and calls on the British Prime Minister, Secretary of State, the Taoiseach and Tánaiste to stand with the Garvaghy Road community, engage directly with all sides of dispute and use every appropriate avenue available to them to ensure the rights, dignity and expressed wishes of residents are respected.”
The motion added: “This council further affirms that no community should be dragged backwards into the division and conflict of the past and that dialogue, equality, mutual respect and respect for local communities must remain at the heart of our peace process.”
The Orange Order Portadown District last marched on Garvaghy Road in 1998 when it was then banned by the Parades Commission.
On Monday, the Sinn Fein proposal on the Portadown dispute brought about a heated debate with signalling for the Orange Order to call off its march, attacks of “raw guttural hatred” and even a potential renewal of “wedding vows” for councillors.
Mournes councillor Jill Truesdale said: ”We could sit here and throw out insults all night, it solves absolutely nothing.
“Drumcree has a long painful history in blood, violence, monetary costs and how this place is viewed on the world stage.
“In 1998 this deep wound grew a scab to heal the painful tensions and hurt.
“Alliance opposed picking this scab off and reopening the Drumcree dispute and warned the Parades Commission that doing so would rupture community relations and it did."
She added: ”The Orange Order established a legal right, but it is not an obligation.
“Even at this late stage the Portadown District can put the greater good of the entire community first and choose not to proceed.”
Slieve Gullion councillor David Taylor said: “The decision to recognise Portadown’s legal entitlement to complete a march along the Garvaghy Road is a significant determination.
“For too long the Parades Commission’s approach to Drumcree appeared to be a foregone conclusion.
“I want to pay tribute to the Portadown District in their patience and moderation in the face of everything thrown at them for many years, has been exemplary. And that is what the respect for law looks like.
“The onus now falls on others to match that.”
Newry councillor Killian Feehan said: “We will be supporting the motion and I saw that with no sense of triumph at all, I say that with a sense of sorrow that we are actually here in the first place.
“I can’t really put it into words how depressing it was to be standing with a friend and her family from the Garvaghy Road last weekend as if we had all been sucked back into some sort of twisted time warp.
“I can’t fathom why anyone would go to such lengths to reopen the wounds of the past.. punching the bruises of Drumcree.”
Mournes councillor Henry Reilly said: ”I’ll just speak from the heart, I was married in Drumcree Church many decades ago now.
“I know many really decent Catholic people from Portadown and the thing I got this time round there was very little of those people worried about 30 men walking down the Garvaghy Road.
“But, the thing that has really got me is the raw guttural hatred we have seen from the republican crowd at Garvaghy to the traditions that I hold dear to myself, is really frightening.”
A majority vote carried the motion with unionists in opposition.
A second emergency motion was brought forward by Slieve Croob councillor Alan Lewis saying: “Following the launch of a criminal investigation of incidents on the Garvaghy Road on Sunday 27 September, this council agrees that all elected representatives support the rule of law.”
However, SDLP councillor Pete Byrne put forward an amendment asking instead for all councillors to reaffirm their pledge to the code of conduct, which gained full chamber consensus.
Councillor Hanna added:”I believe Cllr Byrne is looking for us to renew our wedding vows.”
