Parameters for Parades and Common Sense

Parameters for Parades and Common Sense.

 

Dear Dr Haass and Dr O’Sullivan

 Here is my proposal for guidelines on parading in Northern Ireland.

 In any free society: all citizens, including those of minority cultures, should be facilitated to allow public celebration of their culture. Appropriate restrictions however should be set in place where parades clearly set out to be offensive, or when, within the realms of common sense determination, would truly cause genuine offence.

 Traditional cultural parades should be allowed to proceed along main arterial routes, provided they are conducted peacefully and are respectful to the rest of society.

Restrictions should be imposed in special circumstances where noise or travel disruption would  interfere with other previously organised events, or seriously impede the function of business and commerce.

Restrictions may also be considered necessary, particularly on parade supporters, if a parade passes the homes of residents who can demonstrate the potential for serious impediment of their daily lives as a direct result. 

Non-traditional parades should be treated with the same guidelines unless they clearly set out to be provocative.

A sensible parameter would be that any commemoration dealing with the highly sensitive recent ‘troubles’ should be dealt with separately and potentially have extra restrictions imposed. Where necessary such commemorations should be restricted to areas where the community is clearly supportive and registers no objection.

 Restrictions on parades may also be necessary if symbolism relating to recent ‘troubles’ is displayed. 

Parade participants, and protesters, who step outside imposed government restrictions will of course be breaking the law of the land and should be dealt with accordingly.

 The playing of tunes, without lyrics being sung, cannot logically be deemed offensive as lyrics of songs have been in perpetual transformation throughout history: throughout the country, throughout the world; and this will continue to be the case.  The singing of offensive lyrics by parade participants or supporters is of course illegal when deliberately sung to offend.

 Guidelines on parading should be issued in a clear straightforward language and implemented equally across the board for all our citizens. Sheer common sense should be used to determine what is acceptable and what is truly offensive to others.

 Similarly, sheer common sense should be applied to determine which claims of ‘offence’ are  legitimate, and which claims are spurious and contrived for purposes of mischief.  While many claims have had validity, spurious claims have been a significant factor in much of the contention over parades.  There can be no lasting resolution of the problem if our authorities, and media, remain in denial of this fact.

Violent disruption of peaceful, legal, annual traditional parades should not be rewarded. Annual parades that are attacked should not be restricted the following year due to the threat of further violence from the attackers. To date, this policy by the Parades Commission has clearly encouraged and perpetuated increased violent protest.

Final decisions on individual parades should be the ultimate responsibility of our elected representatives. If common sense, peaceful resolutions cannot be achieved our government should be held accountable. 

Should it still be considered necessary to appoint a Parades Commission perhaps this should be in advisory role and not as a determining body, as is presently the case. Their function in this capacity would be to clearly define the parameters for parading and protests in a manner that would enable consistently fair implementation by PSNI.

In order to achieve government accountability the system of government in Northern Ireland needs transforming to allow for an Official Opposition Coalition that can publicly hold the governing coalition to account.  Considering the unique situation of Northern Ireland, and the need for cross-community agreement, this should still be achievable as the constitutional issue is currently redundant.

To conclude, I believe that lasting solutions for issues of parading, symbolism and the flying of our national flag, can best be resolved by re-examining and clarifying the language of the 1998 Belfast Agreement. The spirit of that agreement has been lost due to the creative but ambiguous language used.

In the meantime we trust that the findings and recommendation of this independent tribunal will steer us a down a new road; a road that leads to a society which embraces tolerance and mutual respect. 

Sincerely

Willie Drennan