Orange Order to hold commemoration for members who died in Troubles at park cenotaph after £6k equality assessment

Belfast Telegraph

2 days ago

In March, unionist councillors expressed outrage at a £6,000 bill for a council equality impact assessment (EQIA) for an Orange Order Troubles dead commemoration in Bangor.
Ards and North Down Borough Council received a request from the Bangor District LOL 18 to hold an Orange Order Victims' Day service of commemoration at the Ward Park Cenotaph this Sunday September 7.
The council says it will be a religious service at the cenotaph to commemorate the life of all Orangemen/women lost during the Troubles. Approximately 50 to 100 are expected to attend, with members of the district lodge and a band.
Section 75 of the Northern Ireland Act 1998 requires public authorities, in carrying out their functions relating to Northern Ireland, to have 'due regard to the need to promote equality of opportunity and regard to the desirability of promoting good relations across a range of nine categories outlined in the Act'.
The £6,000 screening involved a public consultation, including an online questionnaire, and in paper, available in alternative languages.
Following the 12 week EQIA, council officers recommended that the council approve the request to hold the commemoration service, subject to conditions.
The EQIA 'conclusions' section states: 'While the Equality Commission is adamant that an EQIA consultation should not be regarded as a referendum or 'head count', the combined weight of evidence from both quantitative and qualitative feedback would indicate significant local endorsement for the event as originally planned and requested.
'Furthermore, the majority of respondents (73.3 per cent) felt that the event should be allowed to proceed with no conditions attached, and that the likelihood of the event having an adverse impact on the promotion of either good relations or equality of opportunity within the Borough was seen by many respondents as low.
'This is not to ignore the minority who indicated concern that the event may have an adverse impact on other users of the park, or that it may serve to harm good relations more generally. 16.7 per cent of respondents (147) felt that If the request is granted, and the event goes ahead, measures should be attached to mitigate potential adverse impacts. This includes respondents generally in favour of the request concerned about adverse publicity and protests at the event.'
At the latest meeting of the full Ards and North Down Borough Council at Bangor Castle, DUP Councillor Alistair Cathcart said: 'This equality impact assessment and consultation was unnecessary. I was concerned about the community relations, because putting up barriers and obstacles in front of people for a commemoration for lives lost due to terrorism in the Troubles is a deeply worrying thing.
'But while I disagreed with the decision to hold it, the response was really encouraging, showing broad support from all sections of all communities. We have two visions of a shared future, we could have a sterile shared future, where traditions are ended, and there are no flags or symbols, the kind of approach advocated by the Alliance Party.
'Or we could have a shared future where traditions, backgrounds, flags and symbols are respected, across all communities. That is the Northern Ireland that I want to see. And it is great to see the people of Ards and North Down, in terms of their response to this, show it is where they want to be. From all backgrounds, they do not want to be stopping someone else commemorating those who had lost their lives.'
He said: 'A number of years ago, Bangor hosted the Twelfth of July commemorations and the Ulster Fleadh within a week, there were no issues, loads of people came, and it (the Fleadh) was a fantastic event. There was council funding for that (the Fleadh), while my party and all the unionist parties supported the funding for that.
'As Mayor I marched with the Orange on the Twelfth and I really enjoyed every event with the traditional music. That can be one of the confusing things with our identities. I am a unionist and I will never change that, but an evening would be perfect if I can see Ireland smash England in the rugby whilst drinking a Guinness – that doesn't change my unionism.'
He successfully proposed the councillor recommendation to approve the use of land requested from the Orange Order.
Alliance Councillor Chris McCracken said at the meeting: 'Members of the Bangor District Lodge believe the EQIA process has been excessive. They believe it was a very bureaucratic, time-consuming and costly experience – and I do in this case empathise with their concerns.
'That is not to criticise council officers who have difficult judgment calls to make, and I do support officers in what they are trying to do. It is difficult trying to build a shared society. I think in this case the screening process didn't really fully reflect the nature of the request, which was a religious service by local members of the community to remember victims of the Troubles.'
The council's only nationalist representative, SDLP Councillor Joe Boyle, told the chamber: 'I welcome the EQIA. And I get that I am in a largely unionist controlled borough, but people shouldn't be afraid of an EQIA to put the cards on the table, and show that there are other non-unionists. Believe it or not, and small as we are in numbers, but we actually live in this borough as well.
'I have met very fine members of Orange lodges over the years, gentlemen and women, I've worked with them, done business with them. But behind it all, the Orange order is not a perfect organisation.
'They have had their issues, they have had members involved with things they shouldn't have been involved with, acts of murkiness within our Troubles. The reality is it is an anti-Catholic organisation. It is anti my faith, anti what I am and anti who I am.
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'I operate my life with people from that organisation, who I have to say, don't all agree with the current laws within the Order. Their own view is it has to step up and step out, to modernise itself into an organisation that is not a dated one.
'Imagine you couldn't marry someone because they were Catholic. There is no other organisation I know here where you can't join if you're a Catholic, except the Orange Order. So there are big questions there with the Order.'
He added: 'Certainly any grouping should be able to remember their dead in this dirty little war that we had. That is not an issue. But it is an issue for the Orange Order if they want to step up.'