DUP urges Irish government not to intervene in Drumcree dispute

The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has urged the Irish government not to intervene in the Drumcree dispute after calls for the Taoiseach (Irish Prime Minister) Micheál Martin to meet Garvaghy Road residents.

On Thursday, Portadown Orange District said on social media that the Parades Commission had appointed a surprise mediation facilitator for the dispute.

Sinn Féin MLA John O'Dowd said he was concerned there had been no visible engagement from the Irish government on the issue.

The earliest date for a decision by the Parades Commission on the planned Drumcree march by Portadown Orange Order is 23 September – four days before the scheduled parade.

The route the Order hopes to take - including the mainly-nationalist Garvaghy Road - has been published on Parades Commission website.

The taoiseach has received correspondence from the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition seeking to meet with Irish government officials.

Officials from the Irish government have since been in contact with this resident's group. They will continue to monitor the situation and this engagement in the coming days.

Portadown District said it had confirmed their readiness to commence the mediation process as a matter of urgency without any preconditions.

The Parades Commission said it "has appointed a mediation company to progress mediation in relation to the Drumcree parading dispute".

"Both parties to the dispute were informed of this at the same time."

DUP Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart said her party welcomes the idea of mediation.

"It is something that we have been asking for, for many years and we welcome that the Orange Order are ready and willing to talk anywhere, any place and to anyone to get a resolution to this long running sore and this denial of rights over the past 28 years."

Speaking to the Nolan Show, Lockhart said: "We want a re-balancing of rights, the Orange Order have put forward a very reasonable, proportionate, they have stretched themselves about what they have put on the table, and it is now about re-balancing rights."

She added it is "utterly constitutionally inappropriate for the Irish prime minister to be anywhere near this issue, and I trust that he will see that he is being weaponised in this invitation".

"I have reached out to our Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, who has responsibility overall for parading in Northern Ireland, to remind the Irish government that they have absolutely no business in regulating parades in Northern Ireland."

On Thursday evening Garvaghy Road residents met to discuss the Orange Order's application to parade down the road.

Speaking after the meeting, O'Dowd said "the reality is there is no requirement for an Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road".

"There is no support for an Orange Order march through this community on a return parade," he said.

O'Dowd called Westminster, and particularly the Irish government, to "listen to this community".

"There is a responsibility on the Irish government to stand up for the rights of these citizens."

The Sinn Féin MLA added that many in the unionist community are "aghast" at the Orange Order's proposal.

Breandán Mac Cionnaith, a spokesperson for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, said they had rejected the Parades Commission mediator on the basis they were not neutral.

"The organisation appointed had actually been employed to do mediation work on behalf of the Orange Order," he said.

Mac Cionnaith added that signatures are being collected from households from around the area in support of preventing the parade.

He said the signatures will be provided to the Parades Commission as evidence that the "vast majority of people" want the march re-routed.

"The commission, and those above them in government, must take good notice of this."