The Five Demands

STATEMENT ISSUED BY THE GREATER ARDOYNE RESIDENTS COLLECTIVE (GARC) – CONCERNING THE RECENT TALKS BETWEEN CARA AND THE ORANGE ORDER (Seachnaraidhe1)

The following statement was issued by the Greater Ardoyne Residents Collective (GARC)

As the 12th of July approaches the community of Ardoyne again braces its self for massive disruption. The recent failure of talks was predictable as micro group CARA is unrepresentative of the views, opinions and sentiments of the residents of the Greater Ardoyne area and has virtually no support.

From its very conception this conspiracy and cynical ploy between Sinn Fein/CARA the UVF, British Security Services and the Orange Order was doomed for failure as it was fundamentally flawed and did not fool the People of our area.

The myth must be dispelled that these Parades only affect a few people who live on a short stretch of the Crumlin road, the truth is these parades have a massive impact on the daily lives of those who live and work in the entire area, disrupting every aspect of our lives. We are denied access to essential services which in the Past has led to loss of life, we are denied the right to carryout the rituals connected to bereavement, we are denied access to our place of worship, the ambulance station must close which endangers life, local shops, eateries and bars must shut, denying people the right to work and earn a living while causing loss of business and profit.

This also causes inconvenience to the whole community, our bus services to Ligoniel and the city centre are disrupted, these are only a few of the affects which Ardoyne residents are expected to endure to facilitate unwanted and unwelcome Sectarian coat trailing.

At the same time the Greater Ardoyne community becomes besieged with hundreds of heavily armed riot clad members of the British Security Forces who do not enjoy the support or confidence of the local population and are viewed as aggressors. Their draconian, brutal and heavy handed methods are renowned and their bias double standard is evident for all to see as they treat our community with total contempt and its residents as second class citizens, criminalising, demonising and brutalising us with their Batons, Plastic Bullets and Water Cannon.

GARC as representatives of the majority of Ardoyne residents again reaffirms its position opposing all unwelcome sectarian parades, this is the will of the vast majority of our residents and as a collective we represent the desire of our people to live peacefully, free from these acts of outdated triumphalist bigotry which have plague our district for generations and is a blight on our lives as we try to build a better future for our children.

We have filed for a Protest at 7am on the morning of July 12th and for an Equality & Civil Rights March on the Crumlin Road at 2:00pm later that day.

Members of GARC have been beaten, harassed, slandered, had their homes raided, received death threats and went to jail for this cause and will do so again without hesitation to stop these unwelcome Sectarian Parades through our community.