22 April 1999 Edition
Show of support for Garvaghy
The latest in a series of groups set up to support the residents of the Garvaghy Road held its first public meeting in Camlough, South Armagh on Tuesday night. One hundred and twenty people packed into the village's small community centre for the meeting, organised by the Newry/South Armagh Garvaghy Road Support Group.
``Our community has been terrorised for the past ten months and the Orange Order are going to up their terror campaign for the next ten weeks and then they expect to walk in our community. Well, we will not stand for it,'' Breandán Mac Cionnaith of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition said. He and four other residents addressed the audience and showed a ten-minute video detailing their experiences over the last four years.
The testimony was harrowing and emotional. Donna Griffin described seeing her teenage daughter beaten by RUC men as they dragged her from the road during a peaceful protest; Joe Duffy told of broken promises and double dealing; and they all described the last ten months of almost unbearable tension as loyalist mobs and Orangemen have held the isolated community under siege.
Breandan Mac Cionnaith warned the audience that the British government is seeking a short-term solution to the problem. ``We are seen as the easy option,'' he said. ``Tony Blair wants an Orange march on the Garvaghy Road. He thinks he can use a couple of thousand soldiers and RUC to beat us off the streets and drive the march through and that will be it solved for another year. The only way to prevent that is for the nationalist people throughout Ireland to make their voices known and support our call for equality and justice.''
``Our community has been terrorised for the past ten months and the Orange Order are going to up their terror campaign for the next ten weeks and then they expect to walk in our community. Well, we will not stand for it,'' Breandán Mac Cionnaith of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition said. He and four other residents addressed the audience and showed a ten-minute video detailing their experiences over the last four years.
The testimony was harrowing and emotional. Donna Griffin described seeing her teenage daughter beaten by RUC men as they dragged her from the road during a peaceful protest; Joe Duffy told of broken promises and double dealing; and they all described the last ten months of almost unbearable tension as loyalist mobs and Orangemen have held the isolated community under siege.
Breandan Mac Cionnaith warned the audience that the British government is seeking a short-term solution to the problem. ``We are seen as the easy option,'' he said. ``Tony Blair wants an Orange march on the Garvaghy Road. He thinks he can use a couple of thousand soldiers and RUC to beat us off the streets and drive the march through and that will be it solved for another year. The only way to prevent that is for the nationalist people throughout Ireland to make their voices known and support our call for equality and justice.''