Foard Cooksley

A lot of you from outside Ireland are probably hearing about the Garvaghy Road and wondering what all the fuss is about. 1998 - After the parade was banned from marching on the Garvaghy Rd, ten Catholic churches were set on fire across Ulster in one night. In the following days, loyalists attacked Catholic homes, schools and businesses. Multiple houses were petrol-bombed, resulting in the murder of 3 young boys, the Quinn brothers. Their home was targeted because their mother was Catholic. She mother woke to the sound of her children screaming in fear and the house full of smoke. Sadly the boys, Jason, Mark and Richard, did not make it out. Garfield Gilmour was sentenced to life in prison after he admitted to driving three members of a UVF unit to the house, but later that was reduced to manslaughter. Johnny McKay and brothers Raymond and Ivan Parke were named by Gilmour as the killers, but were never charged because of a lack of evidence. In the days following the murders, loyalist bands defied orders not to play music while marching passed the home of the Quinn boys grandmother. Tonight, a court overturned an earlier ruling banning the parade from marching on the Garvaghy Road, crowds have gathered and confrontation now seems inevitable with that march set to go ahead early Sunday morning. The courts allowing this march to go ahead is absolute madness!