Member's statement: Garvaghy Road: Implications for a New Ireland
Member's statement by Mr Declan Kearney on .
- MLA
- Mr Declan Kearney
- Party at the time
- Sinn Féin
- Date
- 19 October 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Garvaghy Road: Implications for a New Ireland
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5795306
Read the official Assembly record
Text
I have listened to attempts to link peaceful opposition to an unwanted Orange parade down the Garvaghy Road with the baseless assertion that a future new Ireland will be a place hostile to Orange culture or the unionist tradition. Let me deal with that: it is a false narrative, and it is intentional and premeditated. That takes us to what is going on at the Garvaghy Road. It is not only an attempt to force an unwanted sectarian parade through that community but an engineered crisis and a proxy for an assault on the Good Friday Agreement that has been over two years in the making. It is an attack on progress and peace, and it is about next year's election. It is also a counter-reaction to the growing momentum for Irish unity, and all because the extremists have taken the whip hand in political unionism. They have hijacked the DUP and are dragging it along by the nose. We have been driven to this point by the mentality of 'Croppies lie down'. It is a throwback to the bygone days of the Orange state. Twenty-eight years after the Good Friday Agreement, political unionism still does not get it. If you really want to get a sense of what the future looks like, look at the fleadh. That is the future. Here is the thing: unwanted supremacist marches through Garvaghy Road or anywhere else or the domination of any section of our society belongs to the past. Be sure of this: we are not going back there. By contrast, a new Ireland can and will be a place that celebrates diversity, parity of esteem and respect. That is what the rest of us want: ambition for the future; for an inclusive, progressive society; and for a new republic where there will be no place for domination, division, demonisation or sectarianism.
310 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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