Apprentice Boys’ ‘anger’ at ruling
FURIOUS members of the Apprentice Boys have called on the Parades Commission to reverse a decision that re-routes a parade away from the mainly Catholic Sunnyside estate in Rasharkin on ‘Derry Day’ on Saturday.
North Antrim MLA Mervyn Storey – a member of the Apprentice Boys – will attend a review this week with the commission, and is insisting that “the spineless commission must reverse a decision that again rewards the trouble-makers”.
The determination of the commission was notified to the Campsie Club feeder parade in the Co Antrim village last Friday, confirming the Boys would not be permitted to enter the Sunnyside Drive enclave, as has been the case in the past.
The commission added: “This decision is set against the background of continuing local community tension. It recognises the real possibility of damaging community relations and disrupting the life of the community, should the parade proceed without restrictions.”
Mr Storey hit out at the ruling, saying: “This follows the delay of the annual Ballymaconnelly Flute Band parade last year when a hoax bomb alert by malcontents delayed it for several hours, and they are the people who are being rewarded.
“There is no reason, no rationale, for this decision, and it doesn’t seem to matter to the gutless commission that community relations will be damaged if the Apprentice Boys are denied what has been a peaceful parade for years.”
He added that the Apprentice Boys’ main parade could now walk Derry’s Walls adjacent to the nationalist Bogside, but the Campsie Club in Rasharkin could not walk its own village unrestricted.
“We’ll be doing our utmost to have this reversed,” Mr Storey said.
“It’s a precursor to placing the same restrictions on the forthcoming Ballymaconnelly band parade this year. The Apprentice Boys are simply being used.”
