Lower Ormeau Road: Loyalist parade banned from marching in south Belfast

The route would have gone across the Ormeau Bridge to Lower Ormeau Road and then to Donegall Pass, where it was planned to join a main parade to the cenotaph.

Loyal order parades have not been permitted to march on the Lower Ormeau Road since disorder in the area in the 1990s.

The Lower Ormeau Concerned Community had applied for a protest at the parade.

On Thursday, the Parades Commission published its decision.

It ruled that the parade is prohibited from crossing Ormeau Bridge at its junction with Annadale Embankment, or from entering the section of Ormeau Road between the junction of Ormeau Bridge and Annadale Embankment and the junction of Ormeau Road and Havelock Bridge.

It also reaffirmed the importance of respectful behaviour in the vicinity of interface areas, namely that there shall be no singing, chanting, or loud drumming and that marching should be dignified.

It urged no paramilitary-style clothing to be worn at any time during the parade, and that flags, bannerettes and symbols relating to a proscribed organisation should not be displayed.

A spokesman from the Belfast Walker Club said it noted the recent determination regarding its parade along the Ormeau Road.

The statement said: “The short morning parade on November 7 was to join our fellow Apprentice Boys to walk to the City Hall and join in solemn Remembrance to those who died for Civil and Religious Liberties for all.”

“The club will not be drawn into public commentary that only serves the desire of our detractors to perpetuate political distractions that would diminish the purpose of our parade and the greater meaning of the day for Remembering. There will be no further comment by the Belfast Walker Club.”

The decision follows a previous commission ruling that allowed the Drumcree Orange Order parade in Portadown to march along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road for the first time in almost 30 years.

This sparked an almost two-week stand-off after protesters blocked the Garvaghy Road, and police contended they could not safely escort the parade.

Secretary of State Sir Chris Bryant stepped in to ban the parade.

On Wednesday, a High Court judge ruled that decision was lawful.

Sinn Féin MLA Deirdre Hargey welcomed the commission decision on the lower Ormeau.

She said: “Today’s decision is the correct one, and I am glad the Parades Commission has reached this conclusion.

“There was never any basis or justification for taking the community of the lower Ormeau Road back 27 years.

“Sinn Féin will continue to stand fully with the lower Ormeau Road community. There is no going back. Not now. Not ever.”