Debate contribution: Parades Commission: Drumcree Determination
Debate contribution by Mr Brian Kingston on .
- MLA
- Mr Brian Kingston
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 28 September 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Matter of the Day
- Heading
- Parades Commission: Drumcree Determination
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5761830
Read the official Assembly record
Text
It is utterly disgraceful that the small and legal parade by 35 Orangemen leaving from Drumcree church with no accompanying band was prevented yesterday by an illegal roadblock on the Garvaghy Road. The Members of the Assembly who took part in that illegal roadblock conducted a gross breach of their Pledge of Office. Respect for the rule of law is a fundamental requirement for everyone in society, particularly those elected as legislators. Those who make the law should follow the law, not mob rule. Nationalist representatives from Sinn Féin, the SDLP and People Before Profit have behaved disgracefully in the matter. They have broken the law and encouraged others to break the law. They have not supported tolerance of our different cultures in Northern Ireland. They have harked back to the distant past in an attempt to justify their intolerance. Nationalist representatives want to support Parades Commission determinations when they suit them but break the law when determinations do not suit them. That is not the action of a party of government. It is not a positive vision of any sort of future that they want to sell us. It is a nightmare that we will never buy. Breandán Mac Cionnaith has blatantly stated that he refuses to enter into any negotiations. His intolerance cannot be rewarded with a veto. The Parades Commission determination for the Drumcree parade that should have happened yesterday is in keeping with the model in north Belfast. For years, republicans attacked the Twelfth of July return parade for the Ligoniel lodges. I took part in that return parade many times over the years, returning to my home in Ballysillan. I remember having to protect my children as they walked beside me and we were pelted with golf balls and stones thrown from the front of the Ardoyne shops and from the Ardoyne Road. Since 2013, that return evening parade has been prevented by the Parades Commission. However, since 2024, the Parades Commission has permitted a return parade in the early morning for the Ligoniel lodges. That small parade has passed off without incident and, indeed, without opposition. That is what should have happened yesterday in Portadown. Instead of hyping up the situation, nationalist representatives should have encouraged tolerance of their unionist neighbours on their traditional parade. We in the DUP will stand by the Portadown district lodge. We stand by its disciplined and determined stand and by its legal right to complete its notified parade —
— back to its Orange hall.
417 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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