Taoiseach calls for 'sensible, community-based' mediation in Drumcree 

Orangemen near Drumcree Church as police form a barricade to prevent them entering the Garvaghy Rd on Sunday. File picture: PA

The Government remains “very, very concerned” about ongoing tensions in Drumcree, Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said.

Mr Martin said that there is an “obligation on everybody now to stand back and to mediate an outcome here that is in the best interests of the people of the area and the people of Northern Ireland”.

Speaking to reporters in Cork, the Taoiseach paid tribute to the PSNI, who he said been placed in a difficult, “if not somewhat impossible” position.

“I appreciate the leadership of chief constable Jon Boutcher, who said his over-riding concern was that no one would be harmed in the context of what was transpiring over the last 48 hours,” Mr Martin said.

No one wants to go back to the past divisions and trauma that had been experienced at the Garvaghy Rd and Drumcree, he added.

Mr Martin was asked about calls from Sinn Féin for Northern Ireland secretary of state Chris Bryant to overturn the decision by the parades commission to allow an Orange Order march along the Garvaghy Rd.

“I would say to Sinn Féin and to everybody else: Time to dial back now and time to engage in dialogue, and to work this out in a sensible, community-based way.

“I would point out that over the last number of decades, community relations in this area has improved immensely and very significant work has been put in by residents’ groups, by community groups, to develop community relationships, to put them on a much more sustainable level.”

The Taoiseach said that events over the last few days have threatened to undermine community relationships.

“I think we have to stand back, have a clear vision as to the future, and the future has to be one of engagement, of dialogue, working through these problems as we did in the past, and to avoid the tensions and the trauma and the divisions of the past.”

Mr Martin said it was very important that what had happened in recent days not be allowed to undermine Stormont.

“People have to think ahead and they have to look around corners here, and make sure that any actions they take are in the best interests of all of the people on the island of Ireland and in Northern Ireland, specifically in terms of the executive, because the people of Northern Ireland need a government,” he said.

Portrayals of antisemitism

Separately, Mr Martin was asked about social media portrayals of Ireland as an antisemitic country, a charge he denied, saying he had long affirmed the historic role of Ireland’s Jewish community and the contributions it continued to make.

“That is clearly an unjustified and deliberate attempt to undermine the country by some elements,” he said.

“We have to be careful, we know that social media can be used and manipulated by many different groups and organisations for their own ends.”

He added that Ireland holds strong positions based on principle in respect of the right of Palestinians to their own homeland, the right of Israel to security, and the objective of a two-state solution, where Israel and a Palestinian state could live peacefully side-by-side.

“We’re not anti the state of Israel. We’re not antisemitic, but we are anti the outrageous, in my view, and shocking killings that took place in Gaza,” he said.

“If you bomb houses and schools and so on, you’re premeditatively killing children and innocent people, and that’s the reality.”