Gracey tells supporters protest action must continue

The district master of the Portadown Orange Lodge, Mr Harold Gracey, yesterday called for the protests over Drumcree to continue. Speaking at the barricade at Drumcree hill, which was erected by the security forces to prevent the Orange parade from proceeding down the nationalist Garvaghy Road, he said: "I didn't call for violence last week. I called for protests."

Referring to the campaign against the poll tax in Britain, he pointed out that this tax had been abolished because of street protests. "So I say to our people: continue."

Mr Gracey criticised Ms Brid Rodgers, of the SDLP, for suggesting that "terrorists" had been present at Drumcree. "She would know terrorists. She is with them all the time", he said.

He had put his head on the block last year and still there had been no response from the British government or the Parades Commission. "So this year that was out the window."

John Hume, he said, had brought people on to the streets in 1969 and 30 years of violence had followed. "And he [Mr Hume] has the cheek to say I am irresponsible."

Like Gerry Adams, he was not in the business of condemnation. But he reminded the crowd that it was the Sabbath and asked them not to do anything which would "desecrate the day".

Mr Gracey criticised ecumenists in the Church of Ireland, to which he was "ashamed" to belong. But he praised ministers such as the Rev Eric Cuthbertson, who is an Orange chaplain, and others. "Don't let the ecumenists get us down", he said.

The Moderator of the Presbyterian Church [Dr Trevor Morrow] was "disgraceful", he said, attributing this to Dr Morrow having "spent most of his time in the South". Such standards should not be allowed in the church, he said. "We're proud of our standards. Who does he think he is?"

He remarked that the Methodists were "no different this year" and reminded the crowd that the Methodist President, the Rev Ken Todd, had "sadly" refused to allow Orangemen into his church 10 years ago. "Don't let these clergy corrupt our young people", he added.

Referring to the Stewartstown car-bomb explosion early yesterday, Mr Gracey pointed out that it had been attributed to a dissident republican group by the RUC Chief Constable, Sir Ronnie Flanagan. "I say to Ronnie: they are all republican. They are all under the same banner of pan-nationalism, and the SDLP is no better. So let us stand fast. We're all in this together. Don't let the media misrepresent what this organisation is about."