A NORTH Belfast MLA has said residents in Ardoyne are worried of a return to the past after an Orange Order parade through the area at the weekend.
The contentious Orange Order parade through the nationalist areas of Mountainview, the Dales and Ardoyne shops passed off without incident on Saturday morning. It had been given the go ahead by the Parades Commission.
The newly-authorised march consisted of around 150 people including three lodges and a band.
Protesting residents carried banners bearing the slogans 'No parade without agreement' and 'Rights marched over' as the parade passed in a tense but calm atmosphere.
A 2016 deal between the lodges and the Crumlin and Ardoyne Residents' Association (CARA) facilitated outward parades along the road on the morning of July 12 each year, but without return parades to the Orange Hall in the evening. That agreement collapsed this year.
CARA says this new parade is effectively a return parade to the Ligoniel Orange Hall and is outside the terms of the 2016 agreement. However, the lodges insisted the parade is not a breach of the 2016 accord.
Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly said many residents are concerned about future parades in the area, where violent clashes had broken out before 2016.
“I’m pleased it went off peacefully and I welcome the fact the residents turned out the way they did and stayed very calm," he said.
“The marching season is supposed to be over, this is an extra march. In 2016 there was an agreement between the Orange Order and the residents here and for eight years we had normality.
“People know the history of the last 20 or 30 years. We were in a much better way with community relations, the atmosphere had changed.
“Then the Orange Order walked away from the agreement. I do not understand how the Parades Commission decided this parade could go ahead and neither do the people of this area.
“People are worried and keep asking me if it will go back to the way it was, they want to know if that’s what they’re facing.
“They say this is their culture and they’ve decided to have a parade to celebrate their culture through what has been probably the worst interface during the bad times over the last 20 years.
“They march past a Catholic area, why would you think that’s a good thing to do? How does that celebrate your culture? Frankly, I don’t understand it myself.”
