Richard Boyd Barrett TD and Paul Murphy TD have added their names to a letter from Oireachtas members to British Prime Minister Andy Burnham calling on him to use his statutory powers to ensure that no march is forced through the Garvaghy Road community and to bring this crisis to an end.
Richard Boyd Barrett TD said:
“Paul Murphy and I have added my name to a letter to British Prime Minister Andy Burnham calling on him to ensure that the Orange Order is not permitted to march through the Garvaghy Road community. The people of the area have been living for two weeks with the constant threat of this sectarian march being forced through their area. This threat must be lifted.
“The attempt by the Orange Order to march on Garvaghy Road has nothing to do with an expression of cultural identity. It is an expression of supremacism undertaken to whip up sectarianism.
“The ability of the Orange Order to generate sectarianism has always been contingent on and enabled by British government support and British governments have a shameful, centuries long history of enabling and supporting the Orange Order and its agenda. This has served to divide people in the North over and over again, with deadly consequences. The British government must now finally face down the Orange Order and its sectarian agenda.
“Defending the right of the Garvaghy Road community to peace and freedom from the threat of violence and sectarianism must not be misrepresented as opposing the rights of the Protestant community in the North. The thousands of Protestants who have recently expressed their solidarity with the Garvaghy Road community refute any attempts to represent it as such.
“The massive displays of solidarity with the Garvaghy road community in recent weeks has been a pivotal moment. Tens of thousands have seen this for the anti-sectarian and anti-imperialist movement that it is. Many of those standing on the Garvaghy Road for the last two weekends have worn symbols of solidarity with the people of Palestine and Gaza. ‘From Gaza to Garvaghy Road’ has been a defining slogan of this movement. It has been a remarkable moment of solidarity and it is the mass display of people power that has stopped the Orange Order.
“The British Government must now finally do what it has failed to do so many times throughout our history - they must stop the Orange Order’s sectarian provocation and allow a return of peace to Garvaghy Road.”