ORANGE ORDER MARCHERS will not be allowed to pass through the Catholic Ardoyne district of Belfast following serious rioting in recent years, Northern Ireland’s Parades Commission has ruled.
The DUP has described the ruling that marchers will not be able to return on a stretch of the Crumlin Road following their July 12 parade as “illogical”.
North Belfast MP Nigel Dodds claims the marchers had been put in an “impossible position”.
“They are being denied the right to return home peacefully and with dignity along the main road they have traversed for decades, with priority instead given to dissident republicans who last year attacked the Protestant community at Twaddell Avenue,” he said, adding:
By this determination the commission has chosen to reward intolerance.
Sinn Fein assembly member Gerry Kelly praised the ruling as “a sensible one.”
“The dialogue that began just a few days ago to find a resolution to the situation should recommence,” he said.
Violence flared last year following rival marches. The worst scenes came when groups of youths traded insults and missiles across police lines after Orange Order marchers passed through the Ardoyne. There has been annual trouble at the flashpoint for more than a decade.
According to the Parades Commission, 580 parades and protests will take place across Northern Ireland as part of the July 12 commemorations.
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