PARADES COMMISSION BARS APPRENTICE BOYS PARADE FROM LOWER ORMEAU ROAD

Northern Ireland’s Parades Commission has barred an Apprentice Boys parade from marching along the mainly nationalist lower Ormeau Road in south Belfast. The Belfast Walker Club had applied to start at Ballynafeigh Orange Hall, continue along the Ormeau Road and cross Ormeau Bridge. Its proposed route then took marchers through the lower Ormeau Road to Donegall Pass. In a determination published on Thursday, the commission prohibited the outward parade from crossing Ormeau Bridge at its junction with Annadale Embankment.

The commission also barred the parade from the stretch of Ormeau Road between the Ormeau Bridge and Annadale Embankment junction and the Havelock Bridge junction. Loyal-order parades have not been permitted on the lower Ormeau Road since disorder there in the 1990s. The commission called for dignified marching near interface areas, with no singing, chanting or loud drumming. It also said participants should wear no paramilitary-style clothing and display no flags, bannerets or symbols linked to a proscribed organisation.

Sinn Féin MLA Deirdre Hargey welcomed the decision in a statement. “There was never any basis or justification for taking the community of the lower Ormeau Road back 27 years,” she said. Hargey said Sinn Féin would continue to stand with the lower Ormeau Road community. “There is no going back. Not now. Not ever,” she added.