Debate contribution: Parades Commission: Drumcree Determination
Debate contribution by Ms Claire Sugden on .
- MLA
- Ms Claire Sugden
- Party at the time
- Independent
- Date
- 28 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Matter of the Day
- Heading
- Parades Commission: Drumcree Determination
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5761826
Read the official Assembly record
Text
The Parades Commission exists because the issues involved are incredibly difficult. They are emotional, and they carry history, identity, hurt and loss. Almost 30 years ago, we recognised that such decisions could not simply be left to whoever shouted the loudest or threatened violence. Therefore, we created an independent body that was empowered by law to make those decisions. Over the years, the Parades Commission has made determinations with which people have agreed and profoundly disagreed. If the commission follows the law, its procedures and the evidence that is before it, we do not have to agree with its decisions, but we can challenge them and protest peacefully against them. Ultimately, however, we have to respect the lawful process. That principle has to work both ways. I have been very critical of the Parades Commission in recent weeks for its failure in dealing with Drumcree, particularly given how sensitive the issue is. I still believe that those failures warrant resignations, because, ultimately, they led to this situation. Law and process, however, matter. If the commission expects communities to live by its determination, it absolutely has a responsibility to follow its own procedures, but we cannot simply disregard a lawful determination that is made because we do not like the outcome. We need to acknowledge something else. For most of Northern Ireland, Drumcree disappeared from view, but it did not disappear for all the people who were involved. Applications, determinations and protest continued. The absence of violence and headlines did not mean that reconciliation had happened. It meant that the issue had been contained. That is, perhaps, the saddest part of all. Almost 30 years on, we are still talking about unionist areas and nationalist areas. We are still marking territory and talking about shared public space as though it belongs to one tradition over another. It belongs to all of us. I understand that people carry memories and trauma from what happened at Drumcree, whether directly, for those involved, or indirectly, for those across Northern Ireland. We are a post-conflict society, yet we have never dealt with the trauma of being in conflict. Those experiences matter. Equally, others have spent almost three decades believing that something that is important to them was left unresolved. I encourage everyone, including those in the House, to scratch beneath the surface before deciding what motivates the person who stands opposite them.
I say this: try to understand why it matters to them, not because you have to agree and not because every action should be executed but because assuming immediately that another person is motivated by hatred, provocation and intolerance leaves us with nowhere to go. Reconciliation surely asks more of each one of us. It asks us to recognise that people can hold values and experiences different from ours and still find a way of sharing the same space. There is a responsibility on the House too. When I was driving to Belfast this morning, I saw people going to work and kids going to school, simply getting on with their day-to-day lives. That puts all of this into perspective. Whatever happens politically over the remaining months of the mandate, the job goes on, and we need to ensure that it does.
539 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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