Loyalists’ matchday parades will go ahead
CONTROVERSIAL Loyalist parades planned for the immediate vicinity of Celtic Park on matchday will go ahead after organisers and the police agreed to early start times and shorter routes, The Herald understands.
The compromise between the Royal Black Chapter, a cousin of the Orange Order, and Strathclyde Police will be ratified by Glasgow City Council this afternoon, a fortnight before the intended parade.
Earlier proposals by the Royal Black Chapter for a later parade were refused as a new policy by the city council forbids processions playing music after 6pm, while the police were concerned about being overstretched on a Saturday evening.
The organisation had intended to stage simultaneous processions along Duke Street in Glasgow’s east end on Saturday, August 13, less than half-an-hour after the final whistle of the match between Celtic and Dundee United, when up to 60,000 supporters would be spilling out of the ground.
The parades, commemorating the 322nd anniversary of The Relief of Derry during the Williamite wars in Ireland, also clash with the World Pipe Band Championships, with police warning that proximity to Celtic Park “introduces an unacceptable risk in relation to public order, traffic and pedestrian congestion”.
A Strathclyde Police spokesman said the force would not be commenting ahead of today’s meeting.
No-one from the Royal Black Chapter was available for comment.
