Statement on the Proposed Garvaghy Road March

The proposed Orange Order march along the Garvaghy Road should not go ahead. The issue is straightforward. The people who live there do not want it.

No organisation has a right to impose a sectarian procession upon a community against the clearly expressed wishes of its residents. Reducing the march to 35 people and removing the band does not create local consent.

This principle is not confined to nationalists or Catholics. In a 2022 survey, 57% of Protestant respondents agreed that parades should be allowed only where organisers and local residents agree the arrangements. The Garvaghy Road residents are asking for that respect and nothing more.

Whatever the court concludes, the underlying issue does not change. Republicans and Nationalists should never treat the British-run Parades Commission as a legitimate arbiter merely because it has sometimes restricted Orange marches. Its decisions are made within the institutions of British rule in the Six Counties. Neither the Parades Commission nor a British court can manufacture local consent where none exists.

We remember all those who lost their lives amid sectarian violence during the Drumcree years, including Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn, murdered in 1998.

The residents have made their position clear. They deserve our solidarity. The wishes of the Garvaghy Road residents should be respected and the march should not go ahead.