Perpetuating the Orange 'Carnival of Reaction': 'a very dangerous gamble’

national | rights, freedoms and repression | opinion/analysis Wednesday July 14, 2010 14:10 by Peter Mulholland - none

Garvaghy and Ormeau Rd. communities’ Joint Response to the First and Deputy First Ministers’ Consultation Paper on Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests in N. Ireland; July 2010.

Garvaghy and Ormeau Rd. communities’ joint response to the First and Deputy First Ministers’ Consultation Paper on Public Assemblies, Parades and Protests in N. Ireland; July 2010.

Recent weeks have seen the Orange Order attempting to win uninformed hearts and minds by presenting sectarian parades as carnivals and potential tourist attractions. But representatives of the Nationalist communities on the Garvaghy Road and Lower Ormeau have warned that the Orange insistence on marching through their areas still poses a threat to fundamental human rights and freedoms.

Furthermore, the residents groups have argued that by failing to treat ‘contentious’ Orange marches as a discrete issue, as unique and independent from other public assembly issues, the N Ireland Assembly’s Working Group on Parading Issues has embarked on ‘a very dangerous gamble’.

The residents group have argued that, rather than bringing closure to the issue of contentious parades, the proposals, structures and bureaucracy suggested in the Working Party’s Draft Bill will merely perpetuate sectarian divisions and the potential for further conflict.

The full text of the GRRC/LOCC response is available at http://orangecitadel.blogspot.com/