Commission Chair’s Drumcree remarks alarm Sinn Fein

A Sinn Fein Assembly member today expressed alarm at comments from the chairman of the Parades Commission that Portadown Orangemen should engage with nationalist residents if they want a march from Drumcree this year.

Upper Bann MLA, Dara O’Hagan said she was concerned that Tony Holland’s comments appeared to suggest a march would follow direct dialogue.

Mr Holland told the Orange Order yesterday it must open up to ‘‘genuine engagement’’ with the nationalist Garvaghy Road residents.

But he also warned residents groups if they erected ‘‘hurdle after hurdle to block any prospect of progress,’’ they risked not being accepted as ‘‘genuine participators’’.

‘‘For such a parade to be a certain factor for July, the dialogue, the talking must start very soon, within the month,’’ he warned Portadown Orangemen.

‘‘At some stage - later but before July - it would have to involve a meeting with the Parades Commission. I do not think at this stage that we can spell it out further than that.’’

Sinn Fein’s Dara O’Hagan claimed Mr Holland’s comments appeared to indicate the Orange Order ‘‘might secure a march along the Garvaghy Road following direct dialogue.

‘‘Such an attitude would lend weight to the suspicion that political pressure has been brought to bear on the Parades Commission and that they are attempting to put forward predetermined outcomes.

‘‘Sinn Fein have long supported the right of residents on the Garvaghy Road to live free from fear and sectarian harassment. It is a principle enshrined in the Good Friday Agreement.

‘‘Direct dialogue and negotiation between sides in disagreement cannot have predetermined outcomes. Such a situation makes a nonsense of the need for meaningful dialogue.’’