'No appetite' for trouble after top Orangeman announces breakdown in Twaddell dispute parading deal

Spencer Beattie’s announcement sparked fears of a return to the 2013-2016 dispute which saw a loyalist protest camp set up at the Twaddell Roundabout, at the interface between the loyalist greater Shankill and republican Ardoyne.

After news emerged on Thursday that the accord which quelled those protests had ended, Assistant Chief Constable Bobby Singleton said: “Police are aware of heightened tensions following the breakdown in engagement between the respective parties in north Belfast, despite the heightened tensions we don’t believe there is an appetite for disorder on any side.

“We will be prepared and will work with all parties irrespective of any decision made by the Parades Commission to deliver a public safety operation.”

The standoff began in July 2013 when a trio of lodges were allowed to walk down the Crumlin Road by the Parades Commission in the morning, but were refused the right to parade back again in the evening.

A deal was brokered in 2016 to end the dispute with the Crumlin / Ardoyne Residents Association (CARA).

It saw the Orangemen complete the outstanding leg of their 2013 parade on a morning in September 2016, after which protests ended.

The lodges agreed not to apply for any more return parades on the evening of the Twelfth until a wider agreement on the issue was reached, meanwhile CARA agreed not to protest against the lodges’ outward parade on the morning of the Twelfth.

Now Orangemen have applied for permission to for a return parade on the evening of the Twelfth, and CARA has applied to stage a protest.

Here is the statement from Mr Beattie, County Grand Master, County Grand Orange Lodge of Belfast, announcing the end off the deal (published on the Unionist Truth Facebook page):

"For nearly eight years, the Orange Order and its community partners within the local area of north Belfast have honoured its commitment to an agreement reached in 2016, which included a voluntary moratorium on applying for a return parade on the 12th of July.

“Hundreds of hours of work and dozens of face-to-face discussions have been undermined by CARA, who have weaponised the dialogue process to deny their Protestant neighbours the right to return home on the 12th of July.

“This cynical and malicious refusal to allow the three local orange lodges and their Protestant neighbours the right to return home is a flagrant breach of the agreement and a blatant disregard for the most fundamental of human rights.

“Regrettably, this bad-faith dialogue on the part of CARA has meant a collapse of the 2016 parading agreement.

“The hypocrisy of republicans demanding the opening of peace gates just yards away from the 12th July parade route on the Crumlin Road, in the name of peace and reconciliation, while denying Protestants their right to return home... must not be tolerated.”

He concluded that “we remain resolute in our commitment to ensuring that the three local orange order lodges and the Protestant community’s right to return home is upheld” regardless of how much opposition there is or whether violence is threatened.

Ron McDowell is a well-known Orangeman in north Belfast who was present at many of the Twaddell protests during 2013-16 (and who is also a TUV Belfast councillor standing for election in Strangford).

Back at that time, the DUP, UUP, TUV formed a united front in sympathy with the Orangemen – pledging a “graduated response” if the lodges’ demands were not met.

If the 2024 Parades Commission decision goes the same way as the 2013 one, councillor McDowell told the News Letter he would “expect a similar united front to be shown” among the parties.

Councillor McDowell, speaking as a TUV man rather than an Orangeman, said: “Nothing has changed – and that’s exactly the problem that’s led us into the situation we’re in at the moment.

"Those parties that supported the peaceful protests back then, I don’t believe any of them have changed their position on that and I’d expect all political parties to reiterate their support for the Orange right to parade home, and also to reiterate their opposition to the Parades Commission.”

He said the current decision has come about because the 2016 deal was only meant to bring “breathing space” for a wider one, and wasn’t an end itself.