Official Website of the Parades Commission
2003 Marching Season:
30/6/03: The Parades
Commission has released its determination for this coming Sunday's annual
Orange Order Drumcree March. The Commission has ruled that the
Orange Order cannot return through the Garvaghy Road. RTE
news service states:
The Commission said it was not aware of any meaningful
engagement having taken place by the organisers with
representatives of the local community.
It also said it was concerned at the disruptive and violent
behaviour by people, including members of the Orange Order,
that took place last year at the barrier erected by the security
forces, despite earlier assurances being given by the
organisers to the police.
27/6/03: The Parades Commission website says it is still holding the next two scheduled marches under consideration, but the Sunday, June 29 weekly march, has been prohibited from entering the Garvaghy Road. Also, the number of bands have been limited. The Parades Commission classifies all the Portadown marches as "contentious."
2000
Marching Season - Parades Decisions
History:
The Following Time Line Indicates the Nature of the
Parades Commission
by Showing Events Surrounding its Arrival onto the Scene
30 January 1997. The Independent Review of Parades and Marches, chaired by Sir Peter North, produces its Report. It makes 43 recommendations, including the establishment of an independent Parades Commission to promote mediation and local agreement in respect of contentious parades. It also recommends that the Commission should take over from the police the legal power to re- route and set other conditions for parades.
March 1997. The Parades Commission is established under the chairmanship of Alistair Graham. Other members include David Hewitt, Frank Guckian, Rev. Roy Magee and Berna McIvor.
15 May 1997. The British government announces that the Parades Commission legislation will not be in place in time for the 1997 marches. Also determined: the Chief Constable of the RUC, Ronnie Flanagan, will retain power to set conditions on parades until the legislation is enacted.
6 July 1997. After the RUC forces the Orange Order parade through the Garvaghy Road violence erupts throughout the six counties.
8 July 1997. The Northern Ireland Office (NIO) leaks a document that states the forcing of the parade had been determined by Mo Mowlam as early as June 20. This "gameplan" document reveals that Alistair Graham, Mo Mowlam, Ronnie Flanagan and the British Army's General Officer Commanding (GOC) had decided that forcing the parade was the only option they seriously considered.
17 October 1997. The NIO announces the publishing of a Government Bill implementing the recommendations of the North Report on Parades. The Bill provides for an independent body, the Parades Commission, to take over from the RUC the power to impose conditions, including re-routing parades.
5 December 1997. The Reverend Roy Magee resigns from the Commission stating that he had only intended to be a member as long as the Commission had mediating responsibilities. The Commission's mediation role was dropped following concerns that it may compromise its ability to make tough decisions on banning or permitting contentious parades.
20 December 1997. The NIO confirms that the RUC still retains final decision making authority on "public conduct" for parades.
January 1998. The Commission announces that a final "blueprint" for the conduct of parades will be revealed in March.
26 January 1998. The Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition submits a statement to the Parades Commission calling for the resignation of Alistair Graham due to his participation in the 1997 "gameplan" document, and the fact that the Parades Commission was a party to the denial of the human and civil rights of the residents of the Garvaghy Road. The Coalition asked "how is the nationalist community in Portadown expected to put its faith and trust in a system which continually regards us as 'the least worst option'?"
24 February 1998. Mo Mowlam appoints the final four members to the Commission. They are Tommy Cheevers, a member of the Apprentice Boys; Glen Barr, former senior member of the now illegal Ulster Defense Association, directly connected to scores of murders; Rose-Anne McCormick, former member of the RUC Police Authority and Aiden Canavan, former president of the Law Society. Berna McIvor, a nationalist representative on the Commission, resigns her position.
24 February 1998. Mowlam also states that the Parades Commission is an independent body and that "the Government has given the Commission no "steer" as to its preferred outcome for this year's marching season."
24 February 1998. In response to the appointments, the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community lodges a legal challenge, saying that the appointments "clearly demonstrate a complete disregard for the views of nationalists and contempt for the broad range of nationalist opinion seeking an agreed solution to the marching issue."
25 February 1998. The Parades Commission announces a 5-day trip to the United States (March 8-13) to "brief all those taking an interest" in the new parades legislation. In response to the announcement, residents committees declare that they will follow the Commission to the US and seek out public debate forums in which to air the nationalist viewpoint of the parades issue.
8-13 March 1998. Representatives of the Parades Commission meet with various politicians, editorial boards and interviewers in the United States regarding the parades issue. At the same time, Breandan MacCionnaith of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition and Gerard Rice of the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community met with the same key figures to give an overview of the nationalist perspective on the parades.
3 April 1998. Parades Commission determines that the planned Apprentice Boys march through the Lower Ormeau Road on Easter Monday should be banned. The parade proceeds peacefully and stops at the entry to the Lower Ormeau.
24 April 1998. the planned release of the Parade Commission's report on contentious parades is quashed by Tony Blair.
24 April 1998. Two loyalist members of the Commission resign without explanation: Glen Barr and Tommy Cheevers
12 May 1998 Apprentice Boys are banned by the Parades Commission from marching through Dunloy
In July 1998, the Commission ruled that the Drumcree march in Portadown not go down the Garvaghy Road, but that the march through the Lower Ormeau be allowed. The Orange Order then initiated what would be a year-long assault on the residents of the Garvaghy Road in "protest" of being kept from marching through that nationalist community. On July 11, 1998, three small boys in Ballymoney were murdered by supporters of the Orange Order's Portadown protest. In October, RUC officer Frank Reilly died ofwounds he received when he was shot at by loyalists at a particularly violent Orange Order demonstration in Portadown. And on March 15, 1999, the Garvaghy Road Residents' solicitor and advocate, attorney Rosemary Nelson, was brutally murdered when a bomb attached to her car exploded. Both independent Craigavon councilors, Joe Duffy and Breandán Mac Cionnaith, have been bodily injured by the RUC when they have attempted to calm riots caused by the ongoing Orange Order attacks. Many residents, including women and children have been assaulted by loyalists in Portadown, and the community remains virtually cut off and ghetto-ized. Despite the deaths, the multitude of injuries, assaults and attacks, neither the Parades Commission or the Government has stopped the Orange Order protests in Portadown. There has been no support for the oppressed Nationalist residents of the Garvaghy Road.
Meanwhile, the communities in the Lower Ormeau, Harryville, Derry and many other nationalist areas of the six counties once again face the uncertainty of how the contentious parades will be handled by the government. The decision about parades seems more and more inextricably linked with the progress of the 1998 Agreement, yet there has been no acknowledgment of the fair and right justice of treating these nationalist communities with equality and liberty.
The Parades Commission is required to give their decisions on the contentious parades only 5 days before the designated date of the parade. In 1999, the Drumcree parade was ordered rerouted but the Lower Ormeau Parade was let through.