SOUTH Belfast MLA Deirdre Hargey has called on the Parades Commission to make the right decision and restrict a march proposed for the Lower Ormeau Road.
The proposed route would begin on November 7 from Ballynafeigh Orange Hall before passing through the Ormeau Road, across Ormeau Bridge and onwards to Donegall Pass.
The lower Ormeau Road became a parading flashpoint following the 1992 murder of five Catholics by the UDA in Sean Graham bookmakers, which also left seven others injured.
Loyal order parades have been prevented from proceeding over the Ormeau Bridge since 1999.
Last year, following a similar application, the Parades Commission allowed the parade to proceed but prohibited it from crossing the bridge at its junction with Annadale Embankment. It refused marchers from “entering that section of Ormeau Road between the junction of Ormeau Bridge and Annadale Embankment and the junction of Ormeau Road and Havelock Bridge.”
The fresh bid to parade comes as loyalist activist Jamie Bryson claimed on Monday that “traditional routes” would be marched once again.
Speaking after meeting with concerned residents in the Lower Ormeau Road, Sinn Féin MLA Deirdre Hargey said: "There can be no unwanted loyal order march down the Lower Ormeau Road.
"The people of the Lower Ormeau Road have lived peacefully for 27 years and they deserve to continue doing so.
"The sectarianism, harassment, violence, and murder visited upon the Lower Ormeau community cannot and will not be allowed to happen again.
"The 1992 Sean Graham bookies' massacre and the subsequent displays at parades have left deep and painful wounds that must not be reopened. Only recently the memorial to those murdered was attacked and scenes from the massacre were printed on a mural in East Belfast. Tensions are incredibly high, and the community is concerned.
"The Parades Commission must make the right decision and maintain the existing restriction on this march, ensuring the community’s concerns are heard and the route remains restricted.
"Sinn Féin will continue to fully support the Lower Ormeau community.
"They deserve to live in peace, and there will be no going back to the past."
