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Editorial Law and Orange Order

February 16, 2011

By Staff Reporter

The rhetoric of reconciliation is about to be tested.

The Orange Order has announced that it intends to go ahead with the Drumcree march even though the Parades Commission has ruled that it must avoid its traditional route, which skirts the Catholic Garvaghy Road area. For months we have listened to talk about building bridges between the two communities in the North. Now it looks like the more usual Ulster approach of burning bridges is about to replace it.

The arguments for and against the Drumcree-Garvaghy Road march have been well-rehearsed and rehashed, year after year. The Orange Order says that it has been following its route since 1807 and that to change it is to offend their tradition and undermine its members’ civil liberties.

The local Catholics point out that in 1807, there was no Catholic housing estate on Garvaghy Road, so no one was there to get offended or feel intimidated. Now that there clearly is, the Orange Order should accept that and adapt accordingly, they argue.

Unfortunately, the situation is made more difficult by the fact that the Orangemen refuse to talk directly to the members of the Garvaghy Road residents association because, they allege, they are a front for Sinn Fein. Instead, they have been talking through each other. The Ulster Unionist Party leader David Trimble has written a letter to the Garvaghy Road residents asking them to respect the Order’s right to march. It would have been much better for all concerned had he met with the people involved face to face. That would have shown a certain courtesy that might have helped convince people that those asking for respect are also capable of giving it.

In 1996, the parade was banned. Then, under mounting pressure, as chaos spread throughout the North, the Royal Ulster Constabulary was forced to let the marchers through. It may have been the wisest move in security terms, but it was an unmitigated political disaster. Last year, to avoid that confrontation, the RUC chose instead to confront the Garvaghy Road residents, bottling them up in their homes and forcing the Orange march through. That too might well have avoided a nasty showdown, but the political cost was again very, very high. It simply confirmed the Catholics’ fear that regardless of the peace process and all the fancy words about equality, parity of esteem, and bridge building, the North is still the stomping ground of Orangeism and if anyone gets in the way they will be stomped on as well.

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What happens on July 5 will be, among other things, an important test of the Belfast Agreement – indeed, its first important test. The RUC’s chief constable, Ronnie Flanagan, has said he will uphold the law. But does this mean he will, if forced to, overrule the parade commission’s decision should the Protestants, as they did in 1996, mount a sufficient threat, pleading that security concerns once more must take precedence?

If that turns out to be the case, then not only will the RUC’s standing be further severely damaged, but the credibility of the commission will be fatally undermined. The Orange Order will be seen to have walked all over the police, the commission, the Catholics and the Belfast Agreement. Then what?

Security concerns are a legitimate consideration, and it is perfectly understandable why the police should want to avoid a serious breakdown of law and order. But in the long term, the surest guarantee of security is a credible police force and the only way to secure that is for the RUC to enforce the ruling of the Commission. Otherwise Catholics will continue to see Garvaghy Road as a case of law and order taking second place to law and Orange Order.

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