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Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
  Press Statements

Drumcree Church Parade

1 July 2002

The Orange Order today expressed its dismay, disappointment and disgust at the decision by the Parades Commission to once again ban Orangemen from walking back along the Garvaghy Road after their annual church service at Drumcree this Sunday (July 7)

Officers of the Order's Portadown District will now request a formal review of the Commission's determination banning the parade for the fifth year running.

Commenting on the Commission's decision, David Burrows, Deputy District Master of the Portadown Orangemen said : "The Garvaghy Road dispute has come to symbolise the victimisation of Northern Ireland's Unionist community. If we want to give peace a chance in the Province, the Parades Commission must be abolished."

Mr Burrows said he was at a loss to understand the latest ban given the undertakings the Portadown District had given to the Commission in return for the parade being approved.

These include face-to-face talks with the nationalist Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition and Government representatives under the chairmanship of Archbishop Eames to discuss security and monitoring arrangements. It's hoped these talks could then lead to wider discussions on resolving inter-community differences in the Portadown area.

In addition the District has written to the Commission saying that if a parade is granted they will immediately terminate all protest action and call on their supporters to do likewise. The parade itself would be restricted to members of Portadown District only with just one band playing agreed hymn tunes walking in an orderly fashion without stopping and carrying just the Union flag and an ex-servicemen's standard.

"It's hard to see what more we can do to demonstrate our goodwill", said Mr Burrows. "There are more than half a million minutes in a year; all we are asking of the Garvaghy Road residents on Sunday is a bit of tolerance for just seven of them while we walk back from church along our traditional route - then we can all put this dispute behind us and get down to working out our differences."

Mr Burrows continued: "We're hearing a lot of conciliatory noises from the Sinn Fein leadership at the moment about the need to convince unionists about nationalist commitment to the peace process. If they mean what they say they should use their influence to ensure the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition allows our church parade and abandons its bigoted and intransigent opposition which has blighted the Portadown district and Northern Ireland as a whole for too long."

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