Restrictions on Willie Frazer ‘bed push’
Plans by loyalist campaigner Willie Frazer to stage a ‘bed push’ to raise funds for the families of IRA victims to seek compensation in Libya have been restricted by the Parades Commission.
Mr Frazer had applied to the parades watchdog to hold the event in Belfast on Saturday 14 December, with an estimated 30 participants and up to 40 supporters.
But the determination has prohibited the procession from making its way around the Ardoyne roundabout, or from heading into the city centre.
It had been proposed that it would head from Peters Hill to City Hall, via North Street, Royal Avenue and Castle Place – but that will not be permitted.
The Parades Commission notes that “the organiser of this parade may be perceived to be associated with the ‘flag’ related protests and this could raise tension in this interface area”.
While the event is intended to raise funds by way of a street collection, the Commission notes that a permit has not been applied for in line with other charities who collect in the city centre.
The watchdog also refers to representations made by the Crumlin Ardoyne Residents’ Association and Sinn Féin, and a delegation representing city centre businesses and the hospitality industry.
The Commission also notes that it has been notified of another parade, that “could be considered to be from the same section of the community”, which has proposed the same route and time – only going against the flow of Mr Frazer’s parade.
The watchdog states that it “had to give due weight to the possibility of significant public disorder and to personal safety concerns should these two parades converge”.
Libya, under the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, is understood to have supplied the IRA with Czech-made Semtex in the 1980s, prompting calls for compensation for victims and their families.
Links between the IRA and Gaddafi are thought to stretch back as far as 1972.
