Portadown OO meet Cardinal

[Wasp]

Senior Orangemen from Portadown have met the leader of the Catholic Church in Ireland, Cardinal Sean Brady.

The meeting took place in Armagh on Thursday night. It was the latest in a series of meetings between Portadown Orangemen and other religious and political leaders and part of their campaign to explain the issues surrounding the Drumcree Parade.

Other meetings have been held with the DUP and Ulster Unionists, the security minister Paul Goggins, the Ashdown Committee on Parading and Archbishop Alan Harper, Church of Ireland Primate.

The Portadown delegation consisted of Darryl Hewitt, Portadown District Master, Deputy District Master, David Jones, District Secretary, John Carrick, District Treasurer and Alan Burns Committee Chairman.

Mr Hewitt said:

“Cardinal Brady has gone on record as saying that people should make a bigger effort to understand the Orange tradition. He has also condemned attacks on our Orange Halls.

“We wanted to meet the Cardinal and thank him for his words, particularly his condemnation of the evil and orchestrated attacks on our property. We also wanted to explain the current impasse with the Drumcree Parade and once again re-iterate that the Orange Order in Portadown is willing to enter face to face talks with the Garvaghy Road residents in an attempt to sort out the problem.

“Our sole, and we believe reasonable, condition is that there should be an independent chairman.

“The Orange Order in Portadown has made huge strides and taken brave decisions. We have received significant backing from throughout Northern Ireland for the work that has gone on behind the scenes.
“A solution for the Garvaghy Road issue will remove one of Northern Ireland’s long running problems and we are certainly prepared to play our part.

“The meeting with Cardinal Brady was worthwhile and very constructive.”

[Jim]

whats your opinion of this wasp?

[Wasp]

I honestly see it as a good thing. It helps take some of the stereotyping of all things orange away. Here we have one religious order meetin a leader of part of another religious order. Its about time the residents spokeswanker puts up or fucks up.

[earl]

Our sole, and we believe reasonable, condition is that there should be an independent chairman

If that is there only condition, then I don't see any problems with the talks going ahead. It makes sense to have a person there without any bias or personal involvement in this. This is the first time I seen this though. Last time this news story surfaced, the pre-condition was that the march would go ahead, regardless of the outcome of the talks.

[An Fear Dubh]

I think you will find that on deeper examination that from the OO view such talks will be that the march goes ahead. So it is irrelevant who or how unbiased any chairman is, if the outcome has already been laid out. No one is against there being an independant chairman, but you must be stupid to agree to talks if the outcome is already decided.

[earl]

That doesn't make any sense at all. If that's still the case, then the Portadown OO still have a long way to go before they realise what this is all about. It isn't just to sit down and have a meaningless debate that will end in a pre-defined result. That's as useless as tits on a boar. They can meet the pope, and it won't matter, if they don't show respect to the residents and treat them like neighbours instead of some faceless group, then it's all for nought. they only have to look into their Bibles to find the answer to this issue.

[Bilk]

earl said:

That doesn't make any sense at all. If that's still the case, then the Portadown OO still have a long way to go before they realise what this is all about. It isn't just to sit down and have a meaningless debate that will end in a pre-defined result. That's as useless as tits on a boar. They can meet the pope, and it won't matter, if they don't show respect to the residents and treat them like neighbours instead of some faceless group, then it's all for nought. they only have to look into their Bibles to find the answer to this issue.

And the residents of course have not already decided that the march will not go ahead? Or have they changed their mind on that?? That's their starting standpoint. And the residents have shown very little respect for the OO over many years. And they have managed to have the parade not take place over those years. Treating someone like a neighbour is not to tell them they cannot walk up a public road because they say so, and that your very presense offends them.

[earl]

Their starting standpoint is clear, no marches until talks are held. There is always a starting point to talks, else, what are you going to talk about? At no point has any of the residents indicated that the end of the talks will have a pre-condition of no march or else, once again, what's the point to having the talks?
The OO can help themselves out AND expose any kind of stall by the residents groups, by agreeing to have the talks without any pre-conditions, other than the independent mediator. If the residents groups genuinely want to sort out this issue, then the talks would go ahead, and depending on the nature of those talks (I'm not a resident, so I have no idea what their list of topics/grievances might be), they could be marching without contest this year. If the residents are using all of this as some kind of cover just to simply ban the march, well, it wouldn't be long exposed. The mediator can be used to find out where any issue within the talks lie. If the OO agree to talks with no preconditions, it put's the ball firmly back in the residents court.

[Harry]

I agree Bilk. The residents will go to any talks with the condition that no march takes place. Just like the OO will have their ideal outcome. There should be talks, no matter what each side wants, talking can only do good.

[Wasp]

Earl the OO for over a year have made there position crystal clear as I said before. They agreed to face to face talks which McKenna demanded and now he is still stalling. He has the condition that there are no preconditions, the OO have the condition that someone neutral is there and they even nominated Albert Reynolds.

Now Earl in all honesty who is holding things up and has been doing so for ages?

The OO have given many conscessions already and they have agreed to McKennas condition of no preconditions in face to face talks, they just have a simple condition of a moderator.

[Wasp]

Last time this news story surfaced, the pre-condition was that the march would go ahead, regardless of the outcome of the talks.

Earl this is simply not true, the last time this story surfaced there was no pre-condition to march and that was over a year ago. The parades commision found it strange that the residents were stalling. IMO it proves what we thought all along and that is these so called residents groups are a farce and continue to try to find fault even when they get what they asked for.

Mckenna is the biggest stumbling block here and his claim to fame apart from antagonizing and provoking is holding a family hostage while his cohorts attacked a charity building because the name British is on it.

[earl]

I'm not from the area, so I can only go on what's reported. I've made my position on this subject abundantly clear above.

[Wasp]

I know Earl, I was just pointing out that I have already posted these facts a while back.