Parades Commission

Drumcree

 C U H S
 

These groups are headed by IRA personnel and the Nationalist residents who live along traditional Orange marching routes have been ordered to  oppose the parades, or at the very least,  demand dialogue about them.

The residents have been instructed to claim that "Orangemen should not be allowed to celebrate a Protestant victory over Roman Catholicism" by marching in a triumphalist manner through "ethnically cleansed"  nationalist areas.
  " Read Boycott "

Orangemen claim  the groups are  IRA/Sinn Fein front organizations created by republicans in the last few years to stir up trouble over a marching tradition which has had a harmonious existence for nearly a century.

The most infamous residents' group is the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition. 
Led by Brendan McCionnaith, an ex-IRA ? prisoner, the body first sprang to international prominence by opposing the Drumcree parade in Portadown in 1995. 
The parade was forced through, but the resulting violence sparked an outpouring of nationalist sympathy for local people. 

The Residents' Coalition meets once every two weeks during most of the year, but up to three times a week in the marching season. 
Other members of the 12 strong group include Joe Duffy, an independent councilor for Craigavon. 

 

Almost as equally well known is the
Lower Ormeau Concerned Community, or LOCC for short. 
Its spokesman, Gerard Rice, is also a former IRA prisoner who took over the mantle as leading light after a former spokeswoman stood down. 

His work has made him public enemy No 1 for Belfast loyalists, but there is no doubt he speaks for a large swathe of opinion in the lower Ormeau. One official opinion poll gave the LOCC the support of more than 90% of residents. 

Unlike Garvaghy, where essentially the issue involves only one parade, the LOCC has co-ordinated resistance and intolerance of a variety of annual parades involving the Orange Order, Apprentice Boys and Black Institution. 

Every year, mainly in August, the Bogside Residents' Group comes to the fore as nationalists and republicans protest against loyalist parades in Londonderry. 
The Apprentice Boys' big demonstration in Londonderry city centre, according to the BRG, causes massive disruption and tension. 

The group, led by ex-IRA prisoner Donncha MacNiallais, has opposed parades in the city centre - insisting dialogue is the way forward. 

The Boys insist the parade does not go through any nationalist areas. 
A number of other 'residents groups'  have sprung up over Northern Ireland under the umbrella of the 

Newry Coalition Against Sectarian Marches objects to Orange parades through what they say is an overwhelmingly nationalist town. 

The Newtownbutler and Area Residents Association has also objected to parades and there has been residents' action in West and North Belfast, Dunloy, Pomeroy, Downpatrick, Armagh, Crumlin and other towns and villages across Northern Ireland. 

All these groups show their total intolerance towards Ulster Protestants and promote the ideology of the IRA.