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Parades Commission Assisting Orange Order

07/07/08

The underhand way in which the Six County Parades Commission is planning to put a massive unionist march through the south Derry town of Maghera on July 12 has been castigated by éirígí’s Geraldine Dougan.

Geraldine, a resident of Maghera, said: “The Parades Commission's website, which is where residents are supposed to be informed of marches in their area, states that 100 marchers will be going through Maghera, while a much larger march will be taking place in near-by Castledawson. In fact, the Parades Commission has now confirmed that 53 bands, 3,250 band and lodge members, plus 8,000 supporters will now be marching through Maghera and not Castledawson as had been previously stated. Worse still, the Commission are saying that this had always been the case!

“The majority of Maghera’s residents are nationalists and the presence of over 11,000 unionist bandsmen and their supporters in our town cannot be seen as anything other than an exercise in intimidation.

“The influx of Orangemen will treble the population of the area and heighten tension on the day. The fact that the Parades Commission didn't even have the decency to inform the local community about the upcoming parade makes the situation immeasurably worse.”

Geraldine continued: “This is not the first time this year that the Parades Commission has misinformed nationalist residents about Orange marches taking place in the vicinity of their communities. In the run up to both the ‘Tour of the North’ (north Belfast) and the Springfield Road march (west Belfast), two of the most contentious marches in the Six Counties, residents were kept in the dark about their true format.

“As a result, the question has got to be asked: Is the Parades Commission carrying out deliberate acts of subterfuge in order to facilitate sectarian marches through nationalist communities?

“The concerns of residents in any given situation are paramount. No organisation, political party or commission is entitled to negotiate on their behalf, or make decisions over their heads. Consent must be given by a community before such marches pass through their area.”

Returning to the Maghera march, Geraldine concluded: “Given the long history of Orange sectarianism in Maghera and the behaviour of its advocates in attempting to intimidate nationalist residents, the only honourable option for the Parades Commission is for them to reverse their ruling on this march.”

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