GARC

The problem is not a weak parades commission, it’s our politics..

| Readers 694

Fascinating. Liam Clarke nails something vital here: ….the only way through the marching season is for Parades Commission decisions to be honoured and enforced by the police. That is the message we need from politicians and, if they don’t like the situation, the answer is in their own hands. They have spent years trying to agree an alternative means of regulating the very small number of disputed parades which blight each summer here. Their failure is the backdrop to the …

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Time for the Orange and the DUP to take a one way bet on the future?

| Readers 104

I’m not sure I agree that Chris’s account of this Twelfth is quite as comprehensive as John implies, but it does highlight why defending the loyal orders right to march on the public highway might be such a hard sell. It’s nine years since Gerry Kelly had his arm broken defending a British soldier from a republican mob in Ardoyne. The tensions in north Belfast each summer are palpable. And it is hardly surprising. The area suffers a heady mix …

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Has the underplating of local power shifted through the pre 12th talks over Ardoyne?

| Readers 66

I think Brian Rowan is on to something potentially significant here: In 2013 Ardoyne is not a new headline or a new problem. It has been with us for years, not something that grew out of the story of the dissidents. I reported from there when plastic bullets were fired as if they were two a penny and when police officers on the frontline fell under a barrage of bricks, bottles, petrol bombs and anything else the crowd could get …

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Date and venue set for round 2

| Readers 55

Greater Ardoyne Resident’s Collective (GARC) spokesman Mairtin Og Meehan has confirmed the group’s intention to stage a protest at the Apprentice Boy’s parade past Ardoyne on August 14, reports the newsletter. ABOD Ligoniel Walker Club have sought permission for a parade with one band and up to 90 participants, with August 4 the date set for the Parades Commission’s consideration of  the application. Meehan said if the “socially detached and discredited Parades Commission” allow the Apprentice Boys to march past …

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