Ardoyne loyalist band banned
The Parades Commission has rejected a late application by the Apprentice Boys to allow an alternate loyalist flute band to pass by the Ardoyne shop fronts on Saturday.
The revised application submitted to the Commission unsuccessfully requested that the Hillview Flute Band from the Shankill Road take part in the feeder parade.
“The band and supporters are prohibited from that part of the notified route between the junction of Crumlin Road and Hesketh Road and the junction of Woodvale Road and Woodvale Parade,” the commission ruled on Wednesday evening.
Earlier this week, the commission gave the go-ahead to the parade but banned the controversial Shankill Star Flute Band – which traditionally commemorates past band member and UVF gunman Brian Robinson – and its supporters from taking part to the march.
Robinson shot dead Ardoyne man Paddy McKenna on the Crumlin Road near his Farringdon Court home in 1989.
Mr McKenna’s relatives still live close to the parade route.
North Belfast Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly, who met with the Parades Commission on Wednesday to discuss upcoming loyal order marches past Ardoyne and in Rasharkin, said the late application was the “wrong thing to do”.
“The wrong thing to do is to allow another band to come down. If the Apprentice Boys had been sincere about what they were doing, they would have had dialogue. They would not have asked for this band to come down,” Mr Kelly told UTV.
SDLP Oldpark Councillor Nichola Mallon accused the Apprentice Boys of “tactical game playing”.
“This 11th hour application in the absence of any genuine dialogue with the local community could be construed as a further act of provocation which could heighten tensions in an already very difficult situation,” she said.
“It begs the question whether these parade organisers are really serious about trying to resolve the issue of contentious parades.”
Nationalist residents, who welcomed the Parades Commission’s decision to ban the Shankill Star Flute Band, say they will hold two protests on Saturday.
Last week, Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams met the North and West Belfast Parades Forum as part of a process aimed at preventing a repeat of the 12 July riots.
During the serious disorder on 12 July, police were attacked with blast bombs and petrol bombs during several hours of rioting, which was blamed on dissident republicans.
