IRISH language pressure group An Dream Dearg organised a public meeting on Tuesday to show solidarity with the Garvaghy Road residents. 

Those present at the meeting discussed ways to support the community on Garvaghy, as well as what may lie in store in the days ahead. 

Speaking before the meeting An Dream Dearg activist and President of Conradh na Gaeilge, Ciarán Mac Giolla Bhéin, said it was important for communities to come together. 

"We were outside the High Court on Friday and people were relatively hopeful that this crisis would be over," he said in Irish.

"Of course that changed, and a group of us went to the (Garvaghy) road on Saturday night. People were gathering from all around the country. People felt in their very cells that it was really important on a personal level to stand in solidarity with this community."

Mr Mac Giolla Bhéin said he spoke with people on the Garvaghy Road who had children and they told him that they "do not want their children to grow up as they did, in a context in which their own community is being forced out of the area".

A new branch of Conradh na Gaeilge was launched in Portadown just last Wednesday, and Mr Mac Giolla Bhéin said there was a huge presence there and that they were warmly welcomed. 

"It's important for us as an organisation that we stand with that community," he said. "We can't discuss Irish as a question separate from everything else. It's people who speak a language, and when those people are under attack, we as a language organisation must stand with them."

He referenced the "incredible spirit" on the road and that people "with different political views on lots of issues" were there, "who felt on a personal level that it was important for them to be there."

"Irish history is a cycle," he said. "People sometimes believe questions and issues are resolved and then those questions often crop up again."

He drew on his own experience growing up in West Belfast, saying that he remembers going to protests in his teens. He said that the new generation are not going to allow "progressive society to disappear because a small bigoted group wants to bring us back".

"I think we have a duty as a community to come together and have a broader discussion about the type of society we need and want going forward."