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Orange Order has applied to march down the Garvaghy Road on 27 September. This reopens an issue that caused years of deep confrontation, fear and trauma for the Garvaghy Road community - a community, by the way, that enjoys the right to live free from sectarian harassment … years, the Garvaghy Road has been free from an unwanted march. This hard-won progress cannot be put at risk. I have written to the Taoiseach on this matter, as has Upper Bann MLA and minister, John O'Dowd, and the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition. We appreciate

chur le haon mhórshiúl atá á bhrú ar an bpobal seo. Dignity, togetherness, resolve and strength: that is what the community of the Garvaghy Road has demonstrated over recent days. Mothers and fathers, grandmothers and grandfathers, families, neighbours and friends have stood together day and night to defend … years of peace, are the Orange Order and the Democratic Unionist Party, DUP, so determined to force this unwanted march down the Garvaghy Road? Why, when a generation has grown up without this intimidation and fear, is there such determination to reopen this dispute and override the clearly

Earlier, we welcomed some of the residents from the Garvaghy Road. It is a very difficult time for them. People are shocked at the prospect of an Orange Order march being forced down the Garvaghy Road this Sunday. I was a teenager when the Orange Order attempted … force marches down the Garvaghy Road many years ago. I remember the images of the fear that was created in that community - the stand-off, the riots and the violence that happened afterwards. Things have moved on so much and thank God they have but it is utter

days in Northern Ireland, particularly Drumcree, and the parade, or the decision by the Parades Commission in respect of a parade down the Garvaghy Road. We in the Government, along with everyone in the House, are deeply concerned with what has transpired. In many ways the events … continue to monitor the situation very closely. Our officials are on the ground, remaining in contact with all key interlocutors, including the Garvaghy Road residents. I have maintained personal contact with Prime Minister Burnham over the weekend, and I know he shares our commitment to upholding the Good

What was particularly impressive about the calm dignity of the Garvaghy Road residents when we met them last Thursday was their concern for a younger generation and to ensure that the dark days of the past would not be repeated for a generation of people who had happily … ensure that nobody is injured, or worse, but the longer uncertainty prevails and the longer the standoff continues, the worse the risk for Garvaghy Road residents, the younger generation and all of those who we had hoped would never experience those horrors again in their lifetime. What

Yesterday, the Taoiseach said he was not going to intervene in the Garvaghy Road-Drumcree stand-off, which is potentially set to escalate again this weekend. He dismissed suggestions that he should call on the British Government, the British Secretary of State for Northern Ireland and, indeed … PSNI to stop a triumphalist sectarian Orange Order march going down the Garvaghy Road. I ask him to reconsider that non-interventionist position. I want him to ask himself what kind of mentality or ideology would lead Orangemen to want to march through a mostly Catholic area, where

need an urgent debate this week on the threat of an armed march going through the Garvaghy Road to Drumcree Church at the weekend. I met with the Garvaghy Road residents yesterday. That mostly Catholic area is gripped with fear and anxiety that after 28 years

take place. I understand Portadown lodge has now notified the Parades Commission of its intention to hold a march passing through the Garvaghy Road on 27 September. I received a letter this morning from the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition. The Government is continuing to monitor this situation

This day last week I asked for an urgent debate before the situation on the Garvaghy Road escalated on behalf of the residents, who I had met the previous day on the Garvaghy Road about the situation that was looming in Drumcree. That request for an urgent debate

want to raise again the urgent situation on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown. As the Minister will be aware, the Parades Commission is about to consider an Orange Order application to march down the Garvaghy Road this Sunday. For 28 years, this community has lived with relative peace

Boutcher and the PSNI, how come he had already recruited 200 Scottish police officers last Monday or Tuesday week to come to the Garvaghy Road when, at the same time, he was telling the Parades Commission there would not be a public order consequence if the Orange Order … march went down the Garvaghy Road? That suggests that Jon Boutcher misled the Parades Commission, with the consequences we are now facing of a stand-off. The Taoiseach needs to stand up against supremacism and an ideology that is about trying to drag the North back to violent

Before I begin, I want to welcome to the Dáil the members of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition who are in the Gallery. Fáilte romhaibh go léir inniu. They come here at a deeply concerning moment for their community because a fresh application has been made … Orange march along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown this Sunday. That is an issue that can reopen issues residents believed were settled for nearly three decades now. It is raising real fears, real concerns and renewed division and tension in that area. It should not be allowed

wedge between working-class people and Sinn Féin. Of course, this week, when an actual Irish nationalist working-class community on the Garvaghy Road is under siege, these carpet baggers are nowhere to be found. They are more likely, in fact, to be seen drinking with … loyalist bar than standing all night in the rain with the nationalist community of the Garvaghy Road, who are trying to defend their right to live free from sectarian intimidation. They are the real Irish patriots. The days of misrepresenting Sinn Féin are over. The people

thank me and us for standing with the residents of Drumcree against the threat of an Orange sectarian march going through the Garvaghy Road, given the history of loyalist killings and violence that led to the death of 21 people. She was scathing about the Taoiseach's Government … should say this to him - and Andy Burnham's failure to recognise that what is motivating Orange marchers wanting to go through the Garvaghy Road and that led to the death of her brother is naked sectarianism. It is a belief in being triumphalist and treating Catholics

send solidarity to the residents of the Garvaghy Road. What is happening there is an absolute disgrace. I appeal to the Tánaiste, as a member of the Government and leader of his party, to get the Taoiseach and the Government to act immediately. We cannot let this continue … know what needs to be done. There will be no march down the Garvaghy Road. People need to understand that. The Secretary of State must play the role he has to play in this as co-guarantor of the Good Friday Agreement. We met the residents here last

that has never been resolved. We all know that for 28 years, there was never a decision to allow a parade down the Garvaghy Road, and that is how many of us find it difficult to comprehend how a decision was taken on this occasion. We will continue … parties involved with a view to finding a way through this that takes away the significant pressure that hangs over the residents of Garvaghy Road once and for all, or at least to create a pathway. A number of complications to this transpired over the weekend that really

Taoiseach has described the decision of the Parades Commission to permit an Orange Order parade along the Garvaghy Road as "incomprehensible and wrong", and he is right in that. For 28 years there has been no parade on that route and most right-thinking people anticipated that would … equality, mutual respect and consent, are at the heart of finding a lasting resolution? There can be no unwanted Orange march on the Garvaghy Road. It is as simple as that

experience in Northern Ireland. That is what we want to do. There is no need for a parade to go down the Garvaghy Road. That is my view. Others have different views. By the way, parades happen all over Northern Ireland. Every parade is not a demonstration … good work, which has been commented upon, and we will continue with it. Again, we are there to support the Garvaghy Road residents. We are there to support the communities in that area with any particular programme that they bring forward in respect of trying to build

know that the 28 years of peace and progress have to be cherished and protected. All of us know the people of the Garvaghy Road have an absolute right to live free from sectarian intimidation, fear and thuggery and that that right must be defended … very orderly. We need to do everything we can to defend that peace and order and the rights of the community of the Garvaghy Road. I appreciate the Taoiseach's efforts but I again ask him to impress upon the British Government and the Secretary of State that

North this evening. We are engaging closely with the Deputy's party colleagues. I, too, had the opportunity to meet the Garvaghy Road residents when they were here last week. What really struck me was that they are decent people who all have simply worked far too hard … people have worked so hard to get to this point. I heard a woman speaking on "Morning Ireland" this morning who is a Garvaghy Road resident. She talked about how her children were growing up playing with children from another community tradition in a way that would

were always a treat to read. I thank her for all she did. Last Thursday in Dublin, I met with residents of the Garvaghy Road. From them, I heard directly of their distress at the prospect of the Portadown Orange Order marching down the road they call home … parade could safely take place, as it clearly could not? Will he use all diplomatic channels to ensure that the people of the Garvaghy Road are not subjected to further trauma and to ensure that the march does not take place? If mediation fails, will he call

possibly can to avoid any harm or any enduring trauma for the younger generation of the community in Drumcree and particularly along the Garvaghy Road. That has to be our singular objective. We now need to concentrate on how we get a resolution to this, which will

time to be put aside to discuss the events of the weekend on the Garvaghy Road and the response of this House to it. The march was banned for 28 years. The only reason it was given the go-ahead and that the Orange Order wanted

decision to allow the Orange Order to march down Garvaghy Road was the most destabilising decision that has been made in the North of Ireland since the Good Friday Agreement. Twenty eight years of improved community relations are now in jeopardy. The people in the North

Drumcree in recent days following a Parades Commission determination in relation to the routing of an Orange Order parade to include the Garvaghy Road. The Government is very concerned about the situation. Our primary concern remains to avoid a return to the divisions of the past, recalling