Trevor Ringland, NI Conservatives’ co-chair, has warned that a solution to issues around contentious parades must come through politics rather than street protests.
“If there is to be an alternative to the Parades Commission, it is up to the democratic political institutions to bring it forward”, Trevor emphasised. “But the truth is that no process will be perfect and that the basic principles which underpin the commission are likely to remain the same. Whatever the various arguments around the parade which was stopped from walking up the Crumlin Road on July 12th, there was no excuse for anyone to disregard the rule of law. It is absolutely shameful that violence has sent out yet another message that Northern Ireland is not open for tourists in July and anyone who contributed to that situation, directly or indirectly, needs to take a long, hard look at their conduct”.
“The Orange Order chaplain, Mervyn Gibson, is right when he calls for people to get involved in politics in order to resolve these problems. However we have to ask which type of politics he wants people to get involved in. We need to move on to politics which tackle real issues around jobs, health and education, rather than going backwards and concentrating on Orange and Green.”
“There’s a huge responsibility on everyone involved in political life in Northern Ireland to contribute to a tolerant atmosphere. We can’t continue to have campaigns based on eroding certain people’s culture, like we’ve seen from certain nationalist and republican politicians and we certainly can’t have leaders who are irresponsible when it comes to calling people out on the street. We need more respect and tolerance all round and we need to take a step back and look at the type of Northern Ireland we’re likely to hand on to our children.”