Post by Wasp on Aug 29, 2011 21:27:00 GMT
THE Orange Order is watching to see if the Parades Commission takes any action over a south Armagh event at which men with paramilitary uniforms and weapons took part.
The Camlough event on Sunday, August 14 was designed to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes.
A large contingent of former IRA prisoners led the parade while Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams was the main speaker.
His party colleagues, deputy first minister Martin McGuinness and local MP Conor Murphy, also attended. The parade was authorised by the Parades Commission.
However, local MLA and regional development minister Danny Kennedy was angered by the “final salute” on the roadside as the parade passed.
Three men in paramilitary uniforms were pictured with their weapons raised over a coffin which was draped with an Irish tricolour, black beret and gloves.
“I will be raising this paramilitary display in a formal complaint with the Parades Commission,” the UUP man said.
“It is absolutely blatant and it is particularly disgraceful that a government minister was present, which beggars belief. Hunger strikers were members of an illegal organisation, which still remains the case.”
He said that such events at actual funerals during the Troubles were considered illegal, so it followed that there were questions about the legality of a similar event at the parade. “The police need to ask whether these were toy guns or real,” he added.
A spokesman for the Orange Order said: “We will be interested to see what action, if any, is taken by the Parades Commission.”
The commission recently angered Orangemen when it wrote to the Presbyterian Church to complain about a press statement criticising the commission which quoted Rev Mervyn Gibson.
A spokesman for the Parades Commission said the Camlough parade “was not flagged up as contentious in advance by the PSNI and therefore, like thousands of others across Northern Ireland every year, was not subject to an intervention by the Parades Commission”.
He said the paramilitary display “was neither approved or otherwise” by the commission and that his organisation did not have any observers on the ground at the time.
The Parades Commission Code of Conduct states that “No paramilitary-style clothing is to be worn at any time during a public procession”, he said.
Asked if the commission will be taking any action regarding the Camlough display, he replied: “We do not have the authority to take action, prosecutions are a matter for the PSNI and the PPS.”
However the commission will consider the matter at its next meeting, he added.
A PSNI spokesman said they had not received any complaints of shots being fired the Camlough parade.
TUV MLA Jim Allister issued a statement after the parade in which he complained that the advance publicity material for the commemoration events showed that young republicans were to camp at Shane O’Neill’s GAA club and that a hunger strike exhibition and a talk by a convicted bomber were to take place at the sports club.
However, a GAA spokesman said that “no commemorative activity took place on GAA property” although the club car park was used to accommodate an overspill in car parking.
A Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “It is Danny Kennedy’s prerogative to talk to the Parades Commission if he so wishes."
www.newsletter.co.uk/news/loc...arch_1_2991029
The Camlough event on Sunday, August 14 was designed to mark the 30th anniversary of the 1981 hunger strikes.
A large contingent of former IRA prisoners led the parade while Sinn Fein president Gerry Adams was the main speaker.
His party colleagues, deputy first minister Martin McGuinness and local MP Conor Murphy, also attended. The parade was authorised by the Parades Commission.
However, local MLA and regional development minister Danny Kennedy was angered by the “final salute” on the roadside as the parade passed.
Three men in paramilitary uniforms were pictured with their weapons raised over a coffin which was draped with an Irish tricolour, black beret and gloves.
“I will be raising this paramilitary display in a formal complaint with the Parades Commission,” the UUP man said.
“It is absolutely blatant and it is particularly disgraceful that a government minister was present, which beggars belief. Hunger strikers were members of an illegal organisation, which still remains the case.”
He said that such events at actual funerals during the Troubles were considered illegal, so it followed that there were questions about the legality of a similar event at the parade. “The police need to ask whether these were toy guns or real,” he added.
A spokesman for the Orange Order said: “We will be interested to see what action, if any, is taken by the Parades Commission.”
The commission recently angered Orangemen when it wrote to the Presbyterian Church to complain about a press statement criticising the commission which quoted Rev Mervyn Gibson.
A spokesman for the Parades Commission said the Camlough parade “was not flagged up as contentious in advance by the PSNI and therefore, like thousands of others across Northern Ireland every year, was not subject to an intervention by the Parades Commission”.
He said the paramilitary display “was neither approved or otherwise” by the commission and that his organisation did not have any observers on the ground at the time.
The Parades Commission Code of Conduct states that “No paramilitary-style clothing is to be worn at any time during a public procession”, he said.
Asked if the commission will be taking any action regarding the Camlough display, he replied: “We do not have the authority to take action, prosecutions are a matter for the PSNI and the PPS.”
However the commission will consider the matter at its next meeting, he added.
A PSNI spokesman said they had not received any complaints of shots being fired the Camlough parade.
TUV MLA Jim Allister issued a statement after the parade in which he complained that the advance publicity material for the commemoration events showed that young republicans were to camp at Shane O’Neill’s GAA club and that a hunger strike exhibition and a talk by a convicted bomber were to take place at the sports club.
However, a GAA spokesman said that “no commemorative activity took place on GAA property” although the club car park was used to accommodate an overspill in car parking.
A Sinn Féin spokesperson said: “It is Danny Kennedy’s prerogative to talk to the Parades Commission if he so wishes."
www.newsletter.co.uk/news/loc...arch_1_2991029
