Distretto Nord

“Apartheid culturale” contro Orange Order a Drumcree

DUP in Drumcree march ‘cultural apartheid’ blast

The DUP’s Nelson McCausland has accused the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition of trying to introduce “cultural apartheid” into Northern Ireland.

Drumcree, Orange OrderOrangemen have been banned since 1997 from going down the mainly nationalist road after their Drumcree parade.

Mr McCausland said residents “were trying to claim ownership of particular roads and say ‘you cannot go there without our consent'”.

“There is not other way to describe that but cultural apartheid,” he said.

However, Brendan MacCionnaith, spokesperson for the GRRC, said that Orangemen could take the same route back from the church as the one they take to get there.

He said that if there was going to be dialogue “then all the options had to be on the table”.

Garvaghy Road Resident Coalition“The right to freedom of assembly does not equate to an absolute right to march,” he said.

Mr McCausland, Northern Ireland’s Culture Minister, was speaking after a DUP delegation met the Parades Commission, which rules on contentious parades, on Thursday.

In a statement the commission described the meeting as ” a positive and useful exchange”.

“We urge everyone in a position of influence to promote and encourage dialogue in Portadown and wherever parades are disputed,” it said in a statement.

“The Commission hopes that all parties in Drumcree will see the merit of dialogue and agree that it is the best way forward.”

Before 1998, attempts to ban the parade from going down the road resulted in loyalist rioting both in Portadown and across Northern Ireland.

However, when the 1998 march was forced through the Garvaghy Road it sparked republican rioting.

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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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