DUP LEADER Peter Robinson and senior party colleagues have sharply criticised Sinn Féin over its stance on contentious loyalist marches, especially the Drumcree parade.
Sinn Féin president Gerry Adams said there should be no Orange parade along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown “unless the people of Garvaghy Road invite the Orangemen to march up that road”.
He added: “If there was a parade against the wishes of the people, I would be sitting with them in the middle of the road.”
Yesterday Martin McGuinness said it was “not too much to ask” that Orangemen consider never again applying to parade along the Garvaghy Road in light of the serious rioting that marked the annual march during the 1990s.
The Deputy First Minister said the Orange Order should “make a gesture” to residents, adding: “I do not think it is too much to ask given the trouble we have seen on the Garvaghy Road.”
The DUP initially reacted to Sinn Féin by accusing them of backing “cultural apartheid”.
The DUP leader, in a statement also in the names of MPs Jeffrey Donaldson and David Simpson and Assembly member Stephen Moutray, said the remarks were “crass, irresponsible and extremely unhelpful”.
They accused Sinn Féin of going back on what was agreed during marathon talks at Hillsborough earlier this month which led to agreement on the transfer of justice powers from London. “Gerry Adams has stated that the right of public assembly is dependent on the consent of residents but that is Sinn Féin-speak for cultural apartheid,” Mr Robinson said. “Where is the vision for a shared and better future, with shared roads and shared public space?”
Accusing Mr Adams of breaching the spirit and letter of the principles set out in the Hillsborough Agreement, Mr Robinson added: “Gerry Adams is looking over his shoulders at dissidents and the most extreme elements in his own ranks. This is not a time for political retreat; it is a time for leadership and a time for progress.”
Following the Hillsborough talks, a cross-party working group on parades has been established. Progress on parades is linked to the plan to devolve justice by April 12th.
The SDLP, which yesterday met the parades working group, has insisted the Parades Commission must be an integral part of any new and improved mechanism to deal with contentious marches.
Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition spokesman Breandán Mac Cionnaith has suggested that Orangemen return from Drumcree church by the same uncontested route used on their outward journey. He has insisted that in any talks “all the options had to be on the table”, including the possibility that no march takes place again on Garvaghy Road. “The right to freedom of assembly does not equate to an absolute right to march,” he said.