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Date Posted: Thursday, April 19, 7:11:21
Author: Irish News report by Maeve Connolly
Subject: Garvaghy Road warning!

Sinn Fein has been warned not to barter away the rights of Garvaghy Road residents by entering into a deal with the DUP to allow the Orange Order to march along the contentious route in Portadown.

SDLP Upper Bann Assembly member Dolores Kelly said nationalist residents had a right to dialogue with Drumcree Orangemen and that it must not be dismissed for short-term political gain.

"There is a build-up of hints, briefings and media reports that a political deal is in the offing between Sinn Fein and the DUP to let the Orange Order down the Garvaghy Road without entering into dialogue with the residents," she said.

"This is just not on. Dialogue is a requirement of principle and it just cannot be traded away in some sort of secret, back room deal."

Ms Kelly said any deal which would offer a solution to the long-running dispute, which had often erupted in violence in the past, had to be "an open and transparent one involving all the people of the area in dialogue with the marching orders."

"Every one of these people has a right to dialogue," she said.

"That is a fundamental principle that has been at the heart of the whole Drumcree issue for more than a decade, and neither Sinn Fein nor anyone else is entitled to barter those rights away."

The Orange Order last paraded along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road in 1997 but has route restrictions imposed by the Parades Commission ever since.

Five hundred Orangemen and 75 bands took part in the annual Drumcree parade last year.

However, Sinn Fein on Sunday night dismissed the accusation that it was negotiating a deal with the DUP as "complete lies" and a spokesman said that while the party discussed all manner of issues with other political parties this was one where politicians could have no influence.

"This is not an issue that can be resolved by political parties," he said.

"It is an issue that can only be resolved by the people who live on the Garvaghy Road and the Orange Order just as it is in Ardoyne or anywhere else.

"It is between the Orange Order and the community they wish to march through."

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