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Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland
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MP To Lead Delegation To Discuss Threat To Lurgan Orangemen and Supporters

7 July 2005

Upper Bann Democratic Unionist MP David Simpson will lead an Orange Order delegation at a meeting with senior PSNI officers in Lurgan this evening to discuss what the Order has described as a serious threat to the personal safety of Orangemen and their supporters in the town on the Twelfth.

The meeting has been arranged following the Parades Commission's determination to ban Lurgan Orangemen from parading along William Street, as they have done in the past, to the town's railway station where they will board a train to join the main Co Armagh Twelfth demonstration in Portadown.

Instead the Orangemen, accompanying bands and supporters have been told they must disperse at Union Street and make their way on foot as members of the public to the station.

A spokesman for the Lurgan Orange district described the determination as "a recipe for disaster with a very real potential for life-threatening violence.

" Given the violence others have shown towards us in the past, we are deeply concerned that individual Orangemen walking along William Street to the station will be picked off and attacked - and that the police simply don't have the resources to protect us.

"There is not even safety in numbers since the PSNI have said Orangemen walking together along William Street will be deemed to be parading and subject to arrest. The result could be chaos with every prospect of widespread civil disorder.

"As usual, the Parades Commission has completely ignored the law and order implications of its decision. Effectively they've ensured that not only are Protestants barred from celebrating their culture, but now they can't even catch a train without the risk of being attacked."

The spokesman said that the main purpose of this evening's 7.30pm meeting at Lurgan Police Station will be to make clear to the PSNI that they will be held responsible for the safety of those making their way to the station on Tuesday.

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