Ardoyne Orange parade talks ‘made progress’ despite no breakthrough

TALKS to resolve the problem around Orange Order marches at Ardoyne in north Belfast have come to nothing but talks spokespersons from both the Orange Order and the Crumlin Ardoyne Residents’ Association (CARA), the mediators and Sinn Féin have said progress was made nonetheless.

The talks were facilitated by the former President of the Methodist Church, Reverend Harold Good, and Derry businessman Jim Roddy.

Confirmation came on Tuesday that this intervention had ended in failure despite a weekend of hopes that a compromise was imminent.

Speculation that a deal was being brokered to end the Ardoyne stand-off emerged over the weekend when both Belfast morning newspapers, the News Letter and The Irish News, ran stories revealing elements of the deal on Saturday 25 June.

Those details outlined that the three north Belfast Orange lodges blocked from the Crumlin Road after the 2013 Twelfth of July would be allowed to return to their lodge on Friday 1 July, the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme.

For their part, the Orange Order would dismantle the “Camp Twaddell” camp set up to protest against the Parades Commission’s ban and which was the focus for with serious rioting as drunken unionists, egged on by Orangemen, attacked the PSNI.

Such was the confidence that a deal had been reached that a press conference was arranged in a Belfast hotel for Monday afternoon to make public details of the plan.

The conference was cancelled when the talks could not reach a resolution.

◼︎ Meanwhile, the annual Whiterock loyalist parade along the Springfield Road flashpoint passed off peacefully last Saturday, 25 June.

Tension was high as residents feared a backlash from unionists after the Parades Commission imposed restrictions on the parade by refusing the Orange Order’s west Belfast lodge come on to the Springfield Road at Workman Avenue. Instead, the whole parade had to use the Invest NI entry point.

The Parades Commission made its decision to restrict the parade due to last year’s display of paramilitary insignia by the Cloughfern Young Conquerers band. The band commemorates UDA/UFF leader John ‘Grugg’ Gregg, who was killed in a loyalist feud.

Nationalist residents called off their planned protest in response to the Parades Commission’s determination.

● KAI = 'Kill All Irish' (with a Glasgow Rangers crest) – Springfield Road last Saturday