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Orange Order: sulle parate intervenga Theresa Villiers

Order asks Villiers to intervene in parade dispute

Lealisti a Twaddell Avenue, North Belfast | © Presseye

The Orange Order has formally requested that Secretary of State Theresa Villiers intervene on a north Belfast parading dispute.

The leadership of the Orange Institution met with the Secretary of State on Monday and discussed parading legislation and the ban on the Ligoniel Lodge’s parade route in the north of the city.

Orangemen were banned from walking past the adjacent nationalist Ardoyne on their return Twelfth of July route in 2013.

The interface has been the scene of republican rioting in previous years but loyalists were involved in disorder when the Twelfth parade was barred.

Demonstrators have maintained a continuous presence at a protest camp at the Woodvale/Ardoyne interface at Twaddell Avenue ever since.

Justice Minister David Ford said in the assembly on Monday that the cost of policing this is over £330,000 a month.

At Monday’s meeting, the Orange Order presented Ms Villiers with a formal request urging her to personally intervene and commence a process to replace the current parading legislation, with an emphasis on “fair and equitable” regulations for all communities.

In their correspondence to her, the Institution highlighted existing guidelines produced by the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe, as a possible framework for progress regarding any new legislation.

The senior Orange delegation expressed frustration that the Secretary of State had not done more to resolve the situation. An Orange Order spokesman said the Secretary of State “can no longer abdicate her responsibility in relation to this reserved matter”.

Ms Villiers abandoned plans for a panel of inquiry to look at the situation and instead said she would look at finding an “inclusive” path forward – calling on the business community, civic society and political leaders in Northern Ireland to “step up to the plate”.

Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, Edward Stevenson, said: “We are fed up with false promises, double speak and constructive ambiguity. The time for the Government to act to lance the boil of discrimination that the parading legislation has created is long overdue.

“There can be no true stability and enhanced relationships, while the traditions of one community are so shabbily dealt with at the behest of the other.”

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René Querin

Di professione grafico e web designer, sono appassionato di trekking e innamorato dell'Irlanda e della sua storia. Insieme ad Andrea Varacalli ho creato e gestisco Les Enfants Terribles.

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