Kelly - Parades Commission Decision On Ardoyne Wrong
Commenting after the Parades Commission determined that the Orange Order should
parade through three nationalist areas in North Belfast twice on the Twelfth,
Sinn Féin Assembly member for the area Gerry Kelly said:
"The
effect of this Parades Commission determination is to force an anti-Catholic
parade through three Catholic areas twice on July 12th, once in the morning
and again in the evening.
"In the past this operation has
resulted in the nationalist community being hemmed into their own homes, a
fact acknowledged today in the Police Ombudsman report into the 2004 parade.
The Ombudsman report also highlighted the fact that the PSNI on the ground
capitulated to the threat of loyalist violence to force a unionist
paramilitary mob through the nationalist areas along with the Orange Order.
"There
is no logic behind an organisation wishing to march through areas where the
community who live there do not welcome them. That is the bottom line.
Nationalists in North Belfast will be disappointed at this determination by
the Parades Commission. It is the wrong decision and many will feel that it
has come about as a direct result of the threat of unionist paramilitary
violence." ENDS