Orangemen and victims of IRA violence are planning a major march and rally
in Dublin city-centre next month.
The organisers are holding discussions with senior gardai about the
demonstration which will also include Orange bands and community activists
from loyalist areas.
They plan to march from O'Connell Street to the Dail where the rally will be
addressed by unionist politicians. The Rev Ian Paisley and DUP MP, Jeffrey
Donaldson, are among those who will be invited to speak.
The organisers are awaiting the go-ahead from gardai. Dublin's last Orange
march in 1937 ended in disturbances in Talbot Street. A planned parade five
years ago in Dawson Street, to the building where the Orange lodge first met
in 1798, was cancelled after the organisers cited intimidation and a lack of
political support.
But Willie Frazer of the IRA victims' group, Families Acting for Innocent
Relatives (FAIR), said the Republic now had an opportunity to show it was a
tolerant, pluralist society.
"We want to take our message to the heart of Dublin and see if people there
allow us freedom of expression," he said. "Sinn Féin/IRA have held
demonstrations in Dublin for decades, with men in paramilitary-style
clothing marching through the streets.
"We hope to be given the chance to peacefully voice our beliefs against a
united Ireland. We aren't going down to be confrontational. There will be
Union Jacks and Ulster flags but nothing paramilitary. How we are treated
will be a big test for the Republic.
"Dublin interferes in the internal affairs of Northern Ireland, so we've
every right to march there."
At the time of the last planned rally, inviting Orangemen to parade in
Dublin was compared to asking the Ku Klux Klan to march in Alabama. Frazer
admitted a counter-demonstration by nationalist protestors was possible.
He denied his rally would be "offensive" but said: "We want to challenge the
image of the Provisional IRA as romantic freedom fighters. People in the
Republic must hear our story. Nobody would under-estimate the horror of the
Dublin and Monaghan bombings, but we experienced violence day and daily for
35 years."
Victims of the Shankill and Teebane bombings, and the Kingsmill and Darkley
massacres, are among those hoping to take part in the planned rally.
Frazer said prominent individual Orangemen are among the organisers,
although the Orange Order as an institution wasn't involved. "Six Orange
bands will be taking part and about 300 Orangemen, wearing their
collarettes, will be marching," he said.
Gardai had so far been "very helpful" in discussions about the rally which
the organisers hope will be given the go ahead for a Saturday afternoon next
month.
Frazer said demonstrators would travel down by bus but would symbolically
march across the Border "to show there is a Border and to honour those who
gave their lives to protect it".
