Sinn Féin MLA John O’Dowd has insisted that the issue of Orange Order marches on Portadown’s Garvaghy Road is “closed”, as he vowed to raise the matter in the Assembly on its return from summer recess on Monday.
The Upper Bann representative was speaking amid ongoing controversy over Portadown District LOL’s renewed bid to walk along the disputed stretch of the road as part of its Drumcree church parade, and its claim that the Parades Commission has now agreed to begin a formal mediation process.
Mr O’Dowd said the local community had made its position clear.
“The people of Garvaghy Road do not want this march forced through their area,” he said.
“It is a march steeped in a history of hate, sectarian violence, and murder.
“The Garvaghy Road residents deserve to live in peace and to be able to get on with their lives, without this shadow of intimidation and fear hanging over them. Their wishes must be respected.”
The MLA said that almost three decades without Orange parades on the road should not be treated as a problem to be “fixed”.
“Twenty‑eight years of peace is not a problem that requires a solution. It is this progress that needs protection,” he continued.
“What we have seen in recent weeks is a dangerous attempt by unionist leaders to reignite the closed issue of an unwanted march on Garvaghy Road.
“Sinn Féin stands fully with the Garvaghy Road community.
“Tomorrow in the Assembly I will make it clear that the issue of unwanted Orange Order marches on the Garvaghy Road is closed.”
Related: Portadown District hail ‘unprecedented’ move by Parades Commission to initiate mediation process
Portadown District LOL has argued that its latest proposal for a heavily scaled‑down, silent parade is “proportionate” and has welcomed what it described as a “significant and unprecedented” move by the Parades Commission to initiate mediation and appoint an independent chair.
Residents’ representatives and nationalist politicians, however, have repeatedly said there is no appetite locally for the return of parades on the Garvaghy Road and have branded the latest bid a “dangerous attempt” to restart what they regard as an “unwanted” march.
The Parades Commission is expected to rule on the new Drumcree‑related application closer to the proposed date, and has not yet publicly commented on the mediation claims.
Related: Drumcree bid a ‘dangerous attempt’ to restart unwanted Garvaghy Road parades
Meanwhile, Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart has hit back at Mr O’Dowd’s comments stating that his party “appear to believe that simply repeating their obstinate and completely detached from reality assertions that Drumcree is ‘closed’, ‘settled’ or ‘off the table’, that this somehow makes it so.
“They are gaslighting their own community,” she said. “It’s time Sinn Fein psychologically come to accept that the issue of Drumcree is very much on the table, has never been settled and indeed if the law is properly applied, the Portadown District will indeed once more walk their traditional route.
“Whilst for 28 years it may understandably have felt like the Parades Commission may as well have been the ‘Sinn Fein Commission’ when it comes to deciding on parades, and this perception has fed the supremacism and woefully misplaced over-confidence so evident in Sinn Fein’s recent statements, the reality is this legal question will not be decided or dictated by Sinn Fein.
“They are not in control, and the loss of the sense of entitlement and supremacism which has characterised the last two decades in particular will undoubtedly be difficult for Sinn Fein to come to terms with and explain to their base, but comes to terms with it they must.
“This issue will only be finally resolved around the table, with goodwill on all sides. There is a pathway to achieving that objective, building on recent positive cross-cultural events. This involves proportionately balancing the rights of all citizens, within the correct legal framework, rather than the rights of any one community subjugating the another.
“The Portadown District wish to see a fair and equitable balance, arriving at a rights based outcome, over-layered with respect and tolerance on all sides. Sinn Fein wants total supremacy, with the rights of nationalists elevated, and the rights of unionists and the Orangemen expunged. This is not sustainable in a pluralist society.
“I would urge Sinn Fein to dial down the rhetoric, stop gaslighting and whipping up your own base as a means of distracting from your own inability to be honest about what has occurred, and the fact that supremacism and dominance is not going to continue, and as such tolerance and respect will be required.
“Unionism will continue to approach this issue through a lawful and rights-based framework. We will not be distracted by Sinn Fein’s internal politics as they wrestle to establish themselves in the Garvaghy Road, an area they have long abandoned when it served no proper strategic purpose.”
