Jordan Armstrong

I have been at Drumcree since early this morning. I was wary about reopening this dispute but now that has happened, here are thoughts from one unionist perspective. The Orange Order have taken a totally different approach to even the early 2000s (let alone 1990s). There are no supporters on Drumcree hill. None. They used the courts the way nationalists have long done. This highlighted the complacency of a Parades Commission that failed to promote mediation, as it is obliged to do, and which had in effect rewarded a veto by resident leaders who would not talk. This is a march with a long history and so it enjoys a greater presumption of right to proceed than marches that lack that tradition. The massively scaled down Orange proposal of 60 men walking silently, rather than 800 men with bands and banners and flags, was further cut by the commission to 35 participants at 8am. This compromise ruling has been rejected by the full spectrum of Irish nationalism. We are told the timing clashed with 8am Mass. Are the numbers at that service large? I was at the main 11am Anglican service at Drumcree parish this morning, which had around 30 congregants, reflecting the big declines in NI church attendance. Would a 7am silent march with 12 people be accepted? I am reminded of a unionist politician saying years ago that residents in part of north Belfast had got out of their beds to be offended by an early Twelfth feeder march. With a massive crowd on the Garvaghy Road the march will not happen without police dragging people off the streets. The first minister is with the crowds, just as she was at the helm of the huge Bobby Storey IRA funeral (when she had been the most adamant Stormont voice for stricter lockdowns, and after thousands of people in NI had abided by the then severe restrictions on funeral sizes for their loved one). Police removing demonstrators, even though at an unnotified protest, would be cited to justify the grievance and lies about the PSNI being sectarian, and bolster dissident republicans. I am not an Orangeman so I comment as an outsider. I think they would win a moral victory if they acknowledged the impossibility of going ahead today. They could say that 'we sought approval to march, we got it, we assembled to abide fully by the new, stricter terms but it was impossible to proceed given the crowds, led by the first minister'. They could say we will continue to apply for a limited return march. It would expose double standards, not least among those who show contempt for the wishes of local Belfast communities with a policy that forces Irish signage in streets where 85% of residents don't want it. A footnote: at Drumcree parish, Rev Gary Galway said this morning: "We must love our neighbours and we do love our neighbours on the Garvaghy Road"