Member's statement: Garvaghy Road: Protests
Member's statement by Ms Kellie Armstrong on .
- MLA
- Ms Kellie Armstrong
- Party at the time
- Alliance Party
- Date
- 28 September 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Garvaghy Road: Protests
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5761885
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I will call it as it is. Last week, I waited with bated breath to see what the Parades Commission would come up with. As I was sitting in my home, what shocked me about the whole thing was when my daughter, who is in her early 20s, said that she was afraid. She did not live through the Troubles and does not know what it was like, but she was afraid because of what was happening. The majority of people in Northern Ireland who have not been involved in that process and are outside the Drumcree bubble that has been created are asking, "Why are we going back to something like this? Why are we doing this to ourselves? Why are we allowing this to happen?". Young people were not born when the Good Friday Agreement came along and have no idea what my childhood was like. My words at the weekend were, "At least nobody has been killed — yet". Ordinary people are asking, "Why are we doing this?". That really calls attention to the requirement for reconciliation. Maybe if the Orange Order had sat down with the residents of Garvaghy Road in advance, —
— and said, "We're looking to talk together and have a discussion", —
— without the politicians who like to be loud, and said, "Let's do this", —
— and the residents said, "Yes, we're up for negotiation", that would have been one thing.
Why is this happening now? We have no Budget, but the two larger parties are tied up with a conflict and a disgraceful situation that goes back years. The House must remember
that, come February and March, teachers, civil servants and hospital workers will not be paid because there will be no Budget in place. We will run out of money. Let us get back to what we are supposed to be doing in the House — running the country, not running it into the ground.
327 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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