‘Don’t drag us back’ - Garvaghy Road solidarity motion backed in Donegal - Donegal Daily

Councillors in Donegal have united behind an emergency motion calling for peace on the Garvaghy Road and warning against communities being dragged back into the...

Councillors in Donegal have united behind an emergency motion calling for peace on the Garvaghy Road and warning against communities being dragged back into the division of the past.

“Nobody wants to go back to the dark old days,” Sinn Féin Cllr Gerry McMonagle told Monday’s plenary meeting of Donegal County Council.

Cllr McMonagle, who proposed the emergency motion after spending the previous two days on the Garvaghy Road, said residents were now “living in fear” of people losing their lives again.

"They know what happened the last time and they’re fearful that this will happen again," he said.

The emergency motion before Donegal County Council was signed by 12 councillors and subsequently passed in Lifford this afternoon.

It stated: “Donegal County Council expresses its solidarity with the residents of Garvaghy Road, supports their wishes to live in peace and free from sectarian discrimination and harassment, and affirms that communities must not be dragged back to the division and conflict of the past.”

Cllr McMonagle said nobody wants to go back to the violence of the Drumcree dispute in the 1990s, in which 21 people lost their lives.

Cllr McMonagle also hit out at the circumstances which have brought the issue back to the fore and questioned the role of the PSNI, saying residents were now fearful of what could happen next.

He also accused the DUP of being behind efforts to have the Orange Order return to the route, describing the situation as “very damaging to the peace process”.

“For some reason, the Orange Order have stood up and made an application and, for the life of me, nor anybody - any other sensible person you speak to - can’t understand the judge having made the ruling that they should be allowed to go down the Garvaghy Road," he said.

“Somewhere in this, the PSNI have a responsibility because they did not give the security response that they should have given. They said that they weren’t aware of any trouble that could emanate from the parade coming down the road."

Cllr McMonagle added: “And one can only stand in amazement at the DUP and how they’re playing this and what’s the reason. And this is what I think, because they’re behind it. The Democratic Unionist Party is behind this application. They’re forcing the Orange men to put in this application.

“It’s about deflect. It’s actually very damaging to the peace process and it’s very damaging to the political institutions in the Six Counties."

Cllr McMonagle said residents should not have to protest on their own road and argued that alternative routes were available.

“It’s clearly a coat-trailing exercise and it’s being promoted by the Democratic Unionist Party, and we should not - and nobody should - stand by and allow this to happen,” he said.

100% Redress Party Cllr Tómas Seán Devine, who has family members living on the Garvaghy Road, said: "I only remember the road like in the bad days - 21 people losing their lives over a sectarian hate-fest,” he said.

Cllr Devine then strongly condemned some of those supporting the renewed push for the parade route and added: “To watch this hate-fest looking to get down that bit of road again is disgusting.”

His party colleague, Cllr Gary Doherty, Cathaoirleach of Donegal County Council, said the people of the Garvaghy Road had been through “far, far too much than should ever have been expected of them”.

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“They’ve lived through intimidation, division and some of the darkest days in our recent history,” he said.

“They’re entitled to live in peace and they’re entitled to have their voices respected.”

Cllr Doherty said the issue was not about denying anyone their identity or culture.

“It’s about recognising that no tradition gives anyone the right to impose fear, tension or sectarian provocation on another community. No one has that right.

“We’ve come far too far to be dragged backwards, and the people of Garvaghy Road deserve peace, dignity and respect.”

Independent Cllr Declan Meehan described the latest developments as, in his view, an “extremely cynical last-ditch attempt by a sectarian political movement to try and stir up old, quite frankly, dying divisions in the North ahead of an election in a few months”.

He said the situation was “retraumatising people who have been through unimaginable trauma”.

Questioning the purpose of a parade taking a route where residents strongly objected to it, he said: “If a parade or a march only has meaning when it’s going down a route where it is absolutely not wanted, then what is that parade about?

“Is it about celebrating culture, or is it about celebrating the idea that you can impose your culture on someone else?”

Fianna Fáil Cllr Ciarán Brogan said he was speaking in support of the motion on behalf of his party colleagues.

He said people he had spoken to were “actually sick that this has happened” almost three decades after what he described as the “very, very dark days” of Drumcree.

“I think we’ve come on a lot, and a lot of people worked hard for the peace process, and I think we need to do whatever we can to try and send a strong message out that there is no going back,” he said.

“You can dress it up whatever way you like. It’s just simply wrong for this to be happening.”

Cllr Brogan also questioned decisions involving the Parades Commission, the courts and policing, saying people would want to believe that the judicial and policing systems were “fair and balanced”.

100% Redress Party representative Denis McGee and Independent Cllr Niamh Kennedy also spoke in support of the motion.

Speaking after the meeting, Cllr McMonagle said: “I welcome the unanimous support of Donegal County Council for this motion and the clear message it sends that communities should be able to live in peace and free from sectarian discrimination and harassment.

“The residents of Garvaghy Road have the right to live peacefully in their own community without being subjected to intimidation or harassment.

“It is important that we stand in solidarity with those who are affected and reaffirm that communities must not be dragged back to the division and conflict of the past.

“The unanimous support for this motion demonstrates that there is no place for sectarianism or harassment in our communities and that the right of people to live in peace must be respected.”