Loyalists denied

By Anne Cadwallader

PORTADOWN — Violence erupted across the North this week after the Parades Commission banned the Orange Order, for the third successive year, marching through the mainly nationalist Garvaghy area of Portadown on Sunday.

Seven RUC officers were injured, even before the Parades Commission ruling, in rioting at the field next to Drumcree church on Sunday night. There was also loyalist rioting, and roads were blocked, in North and East Belfast.

The violence came after hard-line speeches encouraging loyalists to protest at last Sunday’s parade, which was also rerouted. The British Army is expected to move in this week to dig ditches, string out razor-wire defenses and fortify all entrances and exits to the Garvaghy area.

Hard-line loyalists seem intent on fomenting sectarian attacks against Catholics in the run-up to Sunday’s parade, although both the UVF and UDA sas they won’t become involved.

Mark Harbinson, one leading loyalist extremist, speaking at last Sunday’s parade, said Drumcree was "Ulster’s Alamo" and "The war begins today."

He mocked the Orange Order’s statement of "Here we stand, we can do no other," a quote from Martin Luther, saying, "We can do an awful lot. This is where the fight begins, the war begins today."

There are doubts, however, if such calls to arms will be heeded by most ordinary Protestants and unionists, with some predicting the Orange Order’s refusal to speak to nationalist residents groups will increasingly isolate them from mainstream unionism.

The Parades Commission said in its ruling that, provided the Orange Order abided by its rulings, it could see a "limited parade" taking place down the Garvaghy Road within three to eight months.

This could only happen, it said, in the context of:

€ the Order abides by the Commission’s re-routing of its parade this Sunday;

€ it begins an immediate moratorium on all Drumcree-related protests;

€ it avoids any action that could be seen as incitement to break the law

€ it engages with the residents of the Garvaghy Road.

This would, however, be a once-off parade, with no subsequent parade taking place unless by local agreement.

"We cannot envisage circumstances in which any subsequent parade could pass along the Garvaghy Road unless by local agreement," said the Commission.

Giving his reasons for the Commission’s ruling, its chairman, British lawyer Tony Holland, was critical of the Portadown District of the Orange Order and of the Grand Lodge of Ireland’s refusal to take part in talks, either with it or the Garvaghy Road residents.

He said the simplest way of the Order showing respect for the nationalist residents was to engage in talks with them. The Order could not "escape all the responsibility for creating circumstances in which rioting, assaults and other unlawful acts took place in 1996 and 1998," the Commission said.

Last Sunday, about 1,500 Orangemen marched to Drumcree, where they attended a church service and handed in three letters of protest at the Commission’s ruling barring them from the Garvaghy Road.

There were appeals for more supporters to turn out next Sunday for the main annual parade. Harold Gracey, district master of the Order in Portadown, said protests at Drumcree were easy to contain, and asked for "hundreds of thousands" to protest throughout the North.

"This battle is not just about Drumcree, this is about the Orange Order, it’s about the Protestant people," Gracey said to roars of approval. "They’re now on their bellies, actually; they used to be on their knees. If they don’t get up off their bellies before it’s too late, this country will be gone.

"So let’s carry this protest right across this province. Our struggle will go on for as long as it takes. As I have said many times, it’s very easy for the security forces to contain a crowd here at Drumcree, but if you get out and your friends get out in your own towns and villages . . . " His voice was then drowned out by cheering.

Gracey also said the Order had been "duped" by the British prime minister, Tony Blair, last year but would not be duped again this year. He wished everyone a safe journey home but said they would be welcome to stay until next Sunday if their wished.

There was stone-throwing at police lines, particularly after the British Army had moved in two armored personnel carriers to block the road when cameramen were also punched and their equipment attacked. Later, firecrackers, metal ball bearings and other missiles were hurled at police lines.

Denis Watson, grand secretary of the Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland, said: "We expect protests to be non-violent at all times. What people do is a matter for individuals, particularly over the last 12 months when no one has delivered on promises made to us."

Asked if violence was inevitable at loyalist protests, he said he had never heard the same question asked about republican protests over the last 30 years. "When republicans went on the rampage and have now got what they want, I don’t remember those people being asked the same question," he said.

Watson said the Order was investigating whether the man who said "The war begins today" was a member, but he said "it shows the frustration there is within the Protestant community in relation to marches, and let’s not forget that this Parades Commission was formed at the behest of Sinn Fein and they, of course, are the people who have deliberately orchestrated these stand-off situations in Portadown, Ormeau Road, Dunloy, Bellaghy and Lurgan."

David Burrowes, deputy District Master, had earlier rejected a call by the MP for Upper Bann and Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, who is also the North’s first minister and a member of the Orange Order, to talk to the Parades Commission.

There are reports that members of a neo-Nazi group, Combat 18, are planning to join Loyalist extremists at Drumcree once again this year. The group’s name is taken from the first and eighth letters of the alphabet, "A" and "H" for Adolf Hitler.

Mac Cionnaith arrested

Meanwhile, nationalists staged a protest at Lurgan RUC station on Saturday after Garvaghy Road residents spokesman Breandan Mac Cionnaith was arrested and taken there along with at least six other people from Portadown.

The arrests heightened tension in nationalist areas of Lurgan and Portadown, which until then had been lower than at the same time in recent years. Sinn Fein assemblywoman Dara O’Hagan has raised the arrests with the Irish government.

Mac Cionnaith’s arrest took place at about the same time as Orangemen were erecting their annual Orange march on the lower end of the Garvaghy Road, through which nationalists have to travel during the height of the marching season.

A press photographer who witnessed the arrest said, "We saw nationalists and the RUC standing around at a petrol station, the police were stopping traffic to prevent anyone traveling further down the road toward where the Orange arch was being built.

"We were allowed through and were taking photographs about a hundred yards short of the Orange arch, when we noticed behind us the figure of Breandan Mac Cionnaith walking down the road.

"Suddenly a police land rover came from behind him and pulled right in front of him. We saw police officers grabbing him and Breandan just shrugged his shoulders."

Mac Cionnaith was released after two hours in custody but has been charged with assault, disorderly conduct and behaviour likely to cause a breach of the peace. He was also cautioned for obstruction in Lurgan after refusing to give fingerprints and DNA samples.

Speaking in the minutes after his release, he said: "There was no reason for my arrest and those of others. I was called to the scene because three youths had already been arrested.

"I attempted to speak to the inspector in charge who ignored me. I was then walking to speak to local people to try and calm them when a land rover drew up and blocked my path and I was arrested and taken away.

"I have to ask the question. If I was there trying to calm things down, what was the motivation of the RUC? It seems they were intent on provoking trouble."

Padraigin Drinan, solicitor for the Garvaghy Road Residents, said she believed the charges in Mac Cionnaith’s case were malicious and would never be proceeded with.