ORMEAU ROAD PARADE IS BANNED BY PARADES COMMISSION
05-07-99
The Parades Commission for Northern Ireland has banned an Orange Order march going down the nationalist Lower Ormeau Road in Belfast. It will not be allowed to pass the Ormeau bridge. The march is due to take place on 12 July, the height of the loyalist Orange Order's marching calendar.
The parade, from the Ballynafeigh district of Belfast, is one of the most contentious of the summer. The Orangemen's aim had been to march from their hall in Ballynafeigh and through the nationalist Lower Ormeau Road to join the main Orange parade in Belfast City center.
The Parades Commission said in its determination that the failure of the Orangemen to engage fully in local discussion with the resident's group was behind its decision.
Last year the parade passed peacefully with a minimal police presence separating Orangemen and protesting residents, who lined one side of the street holding black flags as the parade passed. The black flag protest was a reference to the three Quinn boys who were Catholics. They were murdered in a sectarian arson attack on their home in Ballymoney, Co. Antrim, in the early hours of 12 July.
The march became a watershed event in 1992 when trouble broke out between marchers and local residents. In 1992, five Catholics were gunned down in a betting shop on Lower Ormeau by loyalist paramilitaries because of their religion
A few months later, as the march passed through the nationalist area, some Orange Order marchers taunted the locals and made five fingered hand gestures in reference to the murders.
IAIS
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