A senior Democratic Party politician in Massachusetts has written to the British Ambassador to the US calling on him to "help protect the Northern Ireland peace process from collapse" by cancelling the contentious Orange march through the Catholic Garvaghy Road.
James Murphy, Democratic State Representative in the Massachusetts House of Representatives, labelled the Orange Order a "Protestant sectarian organisation committed to Unionist dominance."
Referring the disputes of the nineties, Representative Murphy warned Ambassador Christian Turner that the British should avoid a repeat of 1998 when "the RUC and British Army forcibly removed peaceful nationalist protestors to allow the parade to proceed".
"Twenty-one Catholics lost their lives during the campaign surrounding the parade," he continued, "including human rights lawyer Rosemary Nelson, who represented local residents, as well as the three Quinn children who were killed in their home." GROUND ZERO: The nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown
In the 28 years since the last dispute, Rep. Murphy said that the "Garvaghy Road community has sustained peace and prosperity."
"The return of this deeply divisive parade threatens to undermine three decades of progress and the wider peace process as a whole."
He concluded by "respectfully asking" that the British Ambassador uses his position to "urge the British Secretary of State to exercise his powers to prevent the parade from proceeding."
Mr Murphy's letter comes as the Drumcree dispute rumbles on. Residents of the Garvaghy Road have maintained a presence on the road or at roadside since Saturday. Orange Order members have been prevented from leaving Drumcree Church by police several times since the decision of the Parades Commission was upheld.
