Solidarity with the Residents of Garvaghy Road

Colloquium stands in absolute and unqualified solidarity with the residents of Garvaghy Road and the wider Portadown community in the face of the renewed Drumcree parade controversy.

We write not as distant observers, but as students of law and history who understand that what is happening on Garvaghy Road is not an isolated administrative dispute. It is a confrontation with the unresolved legacies of colonialism, sectarian supremacy, and state-sanctioned violence legacies that threaten, once again, to drag communities back into a bloody past that was supposed to have been buried with the Good Friday Agreement.

What Has Happened

For almost three decades, the Orange Order has been prevented from marching along Garvaghy Road. This was not an arbitrary decision. It was the hard-won outcome of years of confrontation, terror, and suffering inflicted upon a nationalist community that was told, repeatedly, that its dignity was secondary to the "traditions" of another.

A few days ago the Northern Ireland Parades Commission authorized a limited return parade for the first time in 28 years. The residents of Garvaghy Road the people who actually live there, who raise their children there, who carry the living memory of what this parade has meant in the past said clearly and unequivocally: we do not consent.

The decision became the subject of urgent legal proceedings. On 26 September, a High Court judge temporarily suspended the parade, warning that the longstanding dispute had the potential to escalate. Following an unprecedented late-night appeal hearing, the Court of Appeal allowed the legal process to continue and the permission for the parade was ultimately restored. Today, crowds gathered on Garvaghy Road in opposition to the proposed procession people standing on their own street, defending their own community, against a march that has historically meant intimidation, violence, and the assertion of dominance over their lives.

This is not merely a question of one parade.

It is a question of whether the lessons of a bloody history have been learned, or whether we are sleepwalking back into the same patterns of supremacist provocation, community trauma, and sectarian confrontation that defined the worst decades of conflict on this island.

The Orange Order and the Architecture of Supremacy

The Loyal Orange Institution, commonly known as the Orange Order, was established in County Armagh in 1795 following sectarian conflict between Protestant and Catholic groups. Its name and traditions are connected to William of Orange and the Protestant victory at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The organization subsequently became an important institution within Ulster Protestant and unionist political culture.

Historical sources describe the Order's early political purpose in terms of defending Protestant interests and the Protestant constitutional settlement. The organization's history is therefore inseparable from the broader history of religious division, unionism, and British constitutional rule in Ireland.

We must say, plainly and without apology, what these parades have historically represented when forced through nationalist communities: not culture, but conquest. Not heritage, but humiliation. Not tradition, but the assertion that one community's identity carries the weight of state power and imperial history behind it, while another community's right to exist peacefully in its own neighborhood is treated as negotiable.

Cultural tradition cannot exist independently of the rights and dignity of the communities through which a parade passes. A tradition that requires the subordination of another community's consent is not a tradition worth preserving in its current form. It is a mechanism of dominance dressed in bunting and drums.

The Bloody History of Drumcree Cannot Be Erased.

The Drumcree dispute became one of the most serious and internationally recognised flashpoints of the Northern Ireland conflict during the 1990s. This is not ancient history. This is living memory.

The confrontation surrounding Garvaghy Road involved repeated protests, major security operations, and violent disorder. The dispute was associated with sectarian violence and deaths. The events of the period contributed directly to the creation of the modern system for regulating contentious public processions in Northern Ireland a system that was built precisely because the alternative was bloodshed.

The Orange Order has not been permitted to complete its traditional return route along Garvaghy Road since 1997, with restrictions imposed from 1998 onwards. Those restrictions were not imposed lightly. They were imposed because the cost of not imposing them was measured in human suffering, in fear, in trauma, and in lives destroyed.

That history matters. It matters desperately.

A community cannot simply be asked to forget decades of fear, confrontation, and division because a legal or political decision has changed. The residents of Garvaghy Road carry in their bodies and their memories the knowledge of what it means when an Orange parade is forced through their streets. They remember the intimidation. They remember the violence that accompanied and followed such marches. They remember the feeling of being told by the structures of power that their safety, their dignity, and their consent were less important than the "right" of another tradition to assert itself on their doorstep.

To authorise this parade, even in restricted form, against the expressed will of the community, is to reopen a wound that was never fully healed. It is to signal that the logic of supremacy the logic that says one tradition's claim to public space overrides another community's right to peace is still operative. It is to take a step back toward the bloody past that so many people sacrificed so much to escape.

Our Position: Against Supremacy, For Equality

As a student organisation, we believe that the voices of the people who actually live on Garvaghy Road must be heard not as one input among many to be balanced against institutional pressures, but as the primary voices in a decision about their own community, their own street, their own lives.

We recognise that freedom of expression, religious freedom, and peaceful assembly are important democratic rights. We do not dismiss these rights. But we also recognise, as any honest assessment of human rights law and democratic principle demands, that these rights exist alongside the rights of local residents to dignity, security, and meaningful participation in decisions affecting their communities. No right is absolute, and no right can be exercised in a manner that systematically degrades the dignity of another community.

For us, no tradition should place one community above another.

We reject sectarianism in all its forms. We reject intimidation. We reject the idea that any community possesses a superior claim to public space or political authority because of its religion, nationality, or constitutional allegiance.

We reject British supremacy as a principle governing the island of Ireland.

By this, we mean our opposition to any political or cultural conception in which British sovereignty, identity, or tradition is treated as inherently superior to Irish self-determination or to the equal dignity of Irish communities. The history of our island is saturated with the consequences of that supremacist logic: the Penal Laws, the Ascendancy, the Famine, partition, the systemic discrimination against Catholics in Northern Ireland, the collusion, the violence, the decades of conflict that tore communities apart.

British supremacy is not an abstract concept. It is the ideology that built the structures of inequality in Northern Ireland. It is the ideology that told the residents of Garvaghy Road, for generations, that their identity was inferior, that their traditions were suspect, that their consent was irrelevant. It is the ideology that turned parades into weapons and neighbourhoods into battlegrounds. And it is the ideology that, however much it may be repackaged in the language of "heritage" and "tradition," still animates the demand that a nationalist community must submit to a procession it does not want, on its own street, because a commission and a court have decided that the weight of one tradition outweighs the consent of another.

Our position is rooted in the belief that Ireland's future must be determined democratically and through the principle of consent, with equality and respect for every community. Not the consent of institutions to override communities, but the consent of communities themselves.

We Remember Because Forgetting Is How the Bloody Past Returns

Ireland carries a long and painful history of colonial rule, dispossession, discrimination, coercion, and political violence.

We remember the Penal Laws and the historical system of Protestant Ascendancy a system designed explicitly to subordinate one community to another on the basis of religion, enforced by the power of the British state.

We remember the struggles for Catholic emancipation, land reform, self-government, and independence struggles that were necessary precisely because supremacy was the organising principle of political life on our island.

We remember partition and the creation of Northern Ireland a statelet built on the explicit premise that a Protestant majority must dominate, and whose institutions systematically discriminated against the Catholic and nationalist minority for decades.

We remember the discrimination and communal divisions that shaped the twentieth century the gerrymandering, the housing discrimination, the employment discrimination, the policing that served one community and terrorised another.

We remember the violence of the Troubles and the enormous suffering experienced by people across communities. We remember the dead. We remember the maimed. We remember the disappeared. We remember the children who grew up in fear. We remember the families shattered by sectarian violence that was fuelled, directly and indirectly, by the supremacist logic that one tradition had a greater right to power, space, and identity than another.

And we remember that peace was not created by forgetting history. Peace was created by confronting it. Peace was created by people who said: never again. Peace was created by communities who endured the unimaginable and still chose dialogue over destruction.

The Good Friday Agreement established a constitutional framework based upon principles including consent, equality, and respect for both traditions. Those principles must remain meaningful in practice, not merely words in a historic agreement. When the residents of Garvaghy Road say they do not consent, and their consent is overridden, the principle of consent is being hollowed out. When a parade with a history of sectarian provocation is authorised through a nationalist neighbourhood against the will of its residents, the principle of equality is being violated. When the concerns of a community that lived through the bloody reality of Drumcree are treated as secondary to institutional and legal processes, the principle of respect is being betrayed.

For the People of Garvaghy Road

We therefore stand in fierce and unwavering solidarity with the residents of Garvaghy Road who have expressed their opposition to the return of the Drumcree parade.

We do not believe that any community should be required to accept a public procession through its neighborhood without its concerns being taken seriously, and "taken seriously" does not mean acknowledged and then overridden. It means that community consent must be a genuine prerequisite, not a procedural formality.

We believe that community consent, dialogue, and mutual respect must come before confrontation. To do otherwise is to invite the return of the very dynamics that produced decades of bloodshed.

We believe that the people of Ireland in all their diversity have the right to discuss and determine their constitutional future peacefully and democratically, free from the shadow of supremacist ideology and the threat of sectarian provocation.

We say to the residents of Garvaghy Road: you are not alone. Your history is our history. Your struggle for dignity on your own street is a struggle that resonates across our entire island. You have every right to say no. You have every right to demand that your consent matters. And you have every right to expect that the lessons of the bloody past are not discarded for the sake of institutional convenience or political pressure.

🇮🇪 FOR A UNITED IRELAND.

Not an Ireland built upon supremacy, British or otherwise.

Not an Ireland built upon sectarianism or the subordination of one community to another.

Not an Ireland where one tradition is placed above another by the weight of imperial history or institutional power.

Not an Ireland that forgets its bloody past and therefore condemns itself to repeat it.

But an Ireland based upon equality, democracy, dignity, consent, and respect for all communities. An Ireland that has confronted its history honestly and chosen a different future. An Ireland where no parade, no commission, and no court can override the fundamental right of a community to say: this is our home, and our consent matters.

We invite students, academics, and members of the wider Trinity community to read, discuss, and engage with these issues. The questions raised by Garvaghy Road are not peripheral. They go to the heart of what kind of society we are building and whether the promises of peace and equality are real or merely rhetorical.

19th Emergency Committee TCD Law Student Colloquium

Cuireann Colóiciam na Mac Léinn Dlí de chuid Choláiste na Tríonóide a dhlúthpháirtíocht iomlán agus gan choinníoll in iúl le cónaitheoirí Bhóthar Garvaghy agus le pobal níos leithne Phort an Dúnáin i bhfianaise na conspóide athnuaite maidir le paráid Dhroim Crí.

Ní mar bhreathnóirí i bhfad i gcéin a scríobhaimid, ach mar mhic léinn dlí agus staire a thuigeann nach díospóid riaracháin scoite í an méid atá ag tarlú ar Bhóthar Garvaghy. Is achrann é le hoidhreachtaí neamhchríochnaithe an choilíneachais, an ardcheannais sheicteach agus an fhoréigin a cheadaigh an stát — oidhreachtaí atá anois ag bagairt arís pobail a tharraingt ar ais isteach i stair fhuilteach a ceapadh a bheith curtha chun deiridh le Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta.

Cad a tharla

Le beagnach trí scór bliain, níor ceadaíodh don Ord Oráisteach máirseáil feadh Bhóthar Garvaghy. Ní cinneadh treallach a bhí anseo. Ba é toradh crua-thuillte blianta d’achrann, d’uafás agus de fhulaingt a rinneadh ar phobal náisiúnach ar dúradh leis arís agus arís eile go raibh a dhínit níos lú tábhachta ná “traidisiúin” phobail eile.

Cúpla lá ó shin, d’údaraigh Coimisiún na bParáidí i dTuaisceart Éireann paráid theoranta filleadh den chéad uair le 28 bliain. Dúirt cónaitheoirí Bhóthar Garvaghy — na daoine a chónaíonn ann i ndáiríre, a thógann a gclann ann agus a iompraíonn cuimhne bheo ar an méid a bhí i gceist leis an bparáid seo san am atá thart — go soiléir agus go neamhbhalbh: ní thoilímid leis.

Tháinig an cinneadh faoi réir imeachtaí práinneacha dlí. An 26 Meán Fómhair, chuir breitheamh den Ard-Chúirt an pharáid ar fionraí go sealadach, ag tabhairt foláirimh go bhféadfadh an díospóid fhadtéarmach dul in olcas. Tar éis éisteacht achomhairc neamhghnách a reáchtáladh go déanach san oíche, cheadaigh an Chúirt Achomhairc don phróiseas dlí leanúint ar aghaidh agus cuireadh an cead don pharáid ar ais ar deireadh. Inniu, tháinig sluaite le chéile ar Bhóthar Garvaghy i gcoinne na mórshiúlta a bhí beartaithe daoine ina seasamh ar a sráid féin, ag cosaint a bpobail féin, i gcoinne máirseála a raibh imeaglú, foréigean agus dearbhú ceannasachta thar a saol mar chuid dá stair.

Ní ceist í seo faoi pharáid amháin.

Is ceist í faoi cé acu atá foghlamtha againn ó cheachtanna staire fuiltí, nó an bhfuilimid ag siúl inár gcodladh ar ais isteach sna patrúin chéanna d’fhoréigean an ardcheannais, de thráma pobail agus d’achrann seicteach a shainigh na blianta ba mheasa den choimhlint ar an oileán seo.

An tOrd Oráisteach agus Ailtireacht an Ardcheannais

Bunaíodh an Loyal Orange Institution, ar a dtugtar go coitianta an tOrd Oráisteach, i gContae Ard Mhacha sa bhliain 1795 tar éis coimhlinte seicteach idir grúpaí Protastúnacha agus Caitliceacha. Tá a ainm agus a thraidisiúin ceangailte le William of Orange agus le bua na bProtastúnach ag Cath na Bóinne sa bhliain 1690. Tháinig an eagraíocht chun bheith ina hinstitiúid thábhachtach ina dhiaidh sin laistigh de chultúr polaitiúil Phrotastúnach Uladh agus an Aontachtachais.

Déanann foinsí stairiúla cur síos ar chuspóir polaitiúil luath an Oird i dtéarmaí leasanna Protastúnacha agus socrú bunreachtúil na bProtastúnach a chosaint. Dá bhrí sin, ní féidir stair na heagraíochta a scaradh ó stair níos leithne na deighilte creidimh, an Aontachtachais agus riail bhunreachtúil na Breataine in Éirinn.

Ní mór dúinn a rá go soiléir agus gan leithscéal: nuair a chuirtear na paráidí seo trí phobail náisiúnacha in aghaidh a dtola, is é an rud a léirigh siad go stairiúil ná ní cultúr, ach concas. Ní oidhreacht, ach náiriú. Ní traidisiún, ach dearbhú go bhfuil meáchan chumhacht an stáit agus stair impiriúil taobh thiar d’fhéiniúlacht phobail amháin, agus go bhfuil ceart pobail eile maireachtáil go síochánta ina chomharsanacht féin le cur faoi chaibidil.

Ní féidir traidisiún cultúrtha a bheith ann neamhspleách ar chearta agus ar dhínit na bpobal trína dtéann paráid. Ní traidisiún é ar fiú é a chaomhnú ina fhoirm reatha má éilíonn sé toil phobail eile a chur faoi chois. Is meicníocht cheannasachta é atá gléasta i mbratacha, i ribíní agus i ndrumaí.

Ní féidir Stair Fhuilteach Dhroim Crí a Scriosadh

Tháinig díospóid Dhroim Crí chun bheith ar cheann de na splancphointí ba thromchúisí agus ba mhó aitheantas idirnáisiúnta de choimhlint Thuaisceart Éireann sna 1990idí. Ní stair ársa í seo. Is cuimhne bheo í.

Bhain an t-achrann timpeall Bhóthar Garvaghy le hagóidí arís agus arís eile, le mór-oibríochtaí slándála agus le mí-ord foréigneach. Bhí baint ag an díospóid le foréigean seicteach agus le básanna. Chuir imeachtaí na tréimhse sin go díreach le cruthú an chórais nua-aimseartha chun mórshiúlta conspóideacha i dTuaisceart Éireann a rialáil — córas a cruthaíodh go beacht toisc gurbh é an rogha eile ná doirteadh fola.

Níor ceadaíodh don Ord Oráisteach a bhealach traidisiúnta fillte feadh Bhóthar Garvaghy a chríochnú ó 1997 i leith, agus cuireadh srianta i bhfeidhm ó 1998 ar aghaidh. Níor cuireadh na srianta sin i bhfeidhm go héadrom. Cuireadh i bhfeidhm iad toisc gur tomhaiseadh costas gan iad a chur i bhfeidhm i dtéarmaí fulaingthe daonna, eagla, tráma agus saolta scriosta.

Tá an stair sin tábhachtach. Tá sí thar a bheith tábhachtach.

Ní féidir iarraidh ar phobal dearmad a dhéanamh go simplí ar na blianta eagla, achrainn agus deighilte toisc go bhfuil cinneadh dlíthiúil nó polaitiúil athraithe.

Iompraíonn cónaitheoirí Bhóthar Garvaghy ina gcorp agus ina gcuimhní an tuiscint ar cad a chiallaíonn sé nuair a chuirtear paráid Oráisteach trína sráideanna in aghaidh a dtola. Is cuimhin leo an t-imeaglú. Is cuimhin leo an foréigean a bhí ag gabháil leis na máirseálacha sin agus a lean iad. Is cuimhin leo an mothú go raibh struchtúir na cumhachta ag rá leo nach raibh a sábháilteacht, a ndínit ná a dtoiliú chomh tábhachtach le “ceart” traidisiúin eile é féin a dhearbhú ar leac a ndorais.

Is é an chiall atá le húdarú na paráide seo, fiú i bhfoirm theoranta, in aghaidh toil shoiléir an phobail, ná créacht nach raibh cneasaithe go hiomlán riamh a athoscailt.

Is comhartha é go bhfuil loighic an ardcheannais — an loighic a deir go sáraíonn éileamh traidisiúin amháin ar spás poiblí ceart pobail eile chun síocháin a bheith acu — fós i bhfeidhm.

Is céim siar í i dtreo na staire fuiltí ar íobair an oiread sin daoine an oiread sin a sheachaint.

Ár Seasamh: I gCoinne an Ardcheannais, Ar Son an Chomhionannais

Mar eagraíocht mac léinn, creidimid nach mór guthanna na ndaoine a chónaíonn i ndáiríre ar Bhóthar Garvaghy a chloisteáil — ní mar ionchur amháin i measc go leor eile atá le cothromú in aghaidh brú institiúideach, ach mar na príomhghuthanna i gcinneadh a bhaineann lena bpobal féin, lena sráid féin agus lena saol féin.

Aithnímid gur cearta daonlathacha tábhachtacha iad saoirse cainte, saoirse reiligiúin agus saoirse tionóil shíochánta. Ní dhéanaimid neamhaird de na cearta sin. Ach aithnímid freisin, mar a éilíonn aon mheasúnú macánta ar dhlí chearta an duine agus ar phrionsabal daonlathach, go bhfuil na cearta sin ann taobh leis na cearta atá ag cónaitheoirí áitiúla chun dínite, slándála agus rannpháirtíochta bríocha i gcinntí a théann i bhfeidhm ar a bpobail.

Níl aon cheart iomlán, agus ní féidir aon cheart a fheidhmiú ar bhealach a dhéanann dínit phobail eile a ísliú go córasach.

Maidir linn, níor cheart d’aon traidisiún pobal amháin a chur os cionn pobail eile.

Diúltaímid don seicteachas i ngach foirm. Diúltaímid don imeaglú. Diúltaímid don smaoineamh go bhfuil éileamh níos fearr ag pobal ar bith ar spás poiblí nó ar údarás polaitiúil mar gheall ar a reiligiún, a náisiúntacht nó a dhílseacht bhunreachtúil.

Diúltaímid d’ardcheannas na Breataine mar phrionsabal chun oileán na hÉireann a rialú.

Leis sin, ciallaíonn muid go bhfuilimid i gcoinne aon choincheapa pholaitiúil nó chultúrtha ina gcaitear le ceannasacht, féiniúlacht nó traidisiún na Breataine mar rud atá níos fearr ó dhúchas ná féinchinneadh na hÉireann nó dínit chomhionann phobail na hÉireann.

Tá stair ár n-oileáin sáithithe iarmhairtí na loighce sin den ardcheannas: na Dlíthe Coiriúla, an Chinsealacht Phrotastúnach, an Gorta Mór, an deighilt, an idirdhealú córasach i gcoinne Caitliceach i dTuaisceart Éireann, an claonpháirteachas, an foréigean agus na blianta fada coinbhleachta a réab pobail óna chéile.

Ní coincheap teibí é ardcheannas na Breataine. Is idé-eolaíocht í a chuidigh le struchtúir éagothroime a chruthú i dTuaisceart Éireann. Is í an idé-eolaíocht a chuir in iúl do chónaitheoirí Bhóthar Garvaghy ar feadh na nglúnta go raibh a bhféiniúlacht níos lú tábhachta, go raibh a dtraidisiúin amhrasach agus nach raibh a dtoiliú ábhartha.

Is í an idé-eolaíocht a rinne airm de na paráidí agus a rinne láithreacha catha de chomharsanachtaí.

Agus is í an idé-eolaíocht í a — is cuma cé mhéad a chuirtear faoi bhrat na “hoidhreachta” agus an “traidisiúin” í — atá fós le feiceáil san éileamh go gcaithfidh pobal náisiúnach glacadh le mórshiúl nach dteastaíonn uaidh, ar a shráid féin, toisc go bhfuil coimisiún agus cúirt tar éis a chinneadh gur mó meáchan traidisiúin amháin ná toil phobail eile.

Tá ár seasamh fréamhaithe sa chreideamh nach mór todhchaí na hÉireann a chinneadh go daonlathach agus de réir phrionsabal an toilithe, agus comhionannas agus meas a bheith ann do gach pobal.

Ní toiliú institiúidí chun pobail a shárú atá i gceist, ach toiliú na bpobal féin.

Is Cuimhin Linn Toisc gurb é an Dearmad a Thugann an Stair Fhuilteach Ar Ais

Tá stair fhada phianmhar ag Éirinn de riail choilíneach, díshealbhú, idirdhealú, comhéigean agus foréigean polaitiúil.

Is cuimhin linn na Dlíthe Coiriúla agus córas stairiúil na Cinsealachta Protastúnaí — córas a ceapadh go sainráite chun pobal amháin a chur faoi chois ar bhonn reiligiúin, agus a cuireadh i bhfeidhm le cumhacht stát na Breataine.

Is cuimhin linn na streachailtí ar son fuascailt na gCaitliceach, athchóiriú talún, féinrialtas agus neamhspleáchas — streachailtí a bhí riachtanach go beacht toisc gurbh é an t-ardcheannas prionsabal eagrúcháin shaol polaitiúil ár n-oileáin.

Is cuimhin linn an deighilt agus cruthú Thuaisceart Éireann — stát a bunaíodh ar an mbonn follasach go mbeadh tromlach Protastúnach i gceannas, agus a ndearna a chuid institiúidí idirdhealú córasach ar feadh na mblianta i gcoinne an mhionlaigh Chaitlicigh agus náisiúnaigh.

Is cuimhin linn an t-idirdhealú agus na deighiltí pobail a mhúnlaigh an fichiú haois — an gerrymandering, an t-idirdhealú i dtithíocht, an t-idirdhealú i bhfostaíocht agus an phóilíneacht a rinne freastal ar phobal amháin agus a chuir sceimhle ar phobal eile.

Is cuimhin linn foréigean na dTrioblóidí agus an fulaingt ollmhór a d’fhulaing daoine ar fud na bpobal.

Is cuimhin linn na mairbh.

Is cuimhin linn na daoine a ndearnadh díobháil bhuan dóibh.

Is cuimhin linn na daoine a d’imigh ar iarraidh.

Is cuimhin linn na leanaí a d’fhás aníos faoi eagla.

Is cuimhin linn na teaghlaigh a réab foréigean seicteach, foréigean a spreag an loighic — go díreach agus go hindíreach — go raibh ceart níos mó ag traidisiún amháin ar chumhacht, ar spás agus ar fhéiniúlacht ná mar a bhí ag traidisiún eile.

Agus is cuimhin linn nár cruthaíodh an tsíocháin trí dhearmad a dhéanamh ar an stair.

Cruthaíodh an tsíocháin trí dhul i ngleic léi.

Cruthaíodh an tsíocháin ag daoine a dúirt: ní arís.

Cruthaíodh í ag pobail a d’fhulaing an rud doshamhlaithe agus a roghnaigh idirphlé in áit scriosta.

Bhunaigh Comhaontú Aoine an Chéasta creat bunreachtúil bunaithe ar phrionsabail lena n-áirítear toiliú, comhionannas agus meas ar an dá thraidisiún.

Ní mór do na prionsabail sin fanacht fíor sa chleachtas, ní hamháin a bheith ina bhfocail i gcomhaontú stairiúil.

Nuair a deir cónaitheoirí Bhóthar Garvaghy nach dtoilíonn siad, agus nuair a sháraítear a dtoiliú, tá prionsabal an toilithe á fholmhú.

Nuair a údaraítear paráid a bhfuil stair de phriocadh seicteach ag baint léi trí chomharsanacht náisiúnach in aghaidh toil a cónaitheoirí, tá prionsabal an chomhionannais á shárú.

Nuair a chaitear le hábhair imní pobail a mhair trí réaltacht fhuilteach Dhroim Crí mar rud tánaisteach i gcomparáid le próisis institiúideacha agus dlíthiúla, tá prionsabal an mheasa á bhrath.

Ar Son Phobal Bhóthar Garvaghy

Dá bhrí sin, seasaimid le dlúthpháirtíocht láidir agus gan staonadh le cónaitheoirí Bhóthar Garvaghy a chuir in iúl go bhfuil siad i gcoinne fhilleadh pharáid Dhroim Crí.

Ní chreidimid gur cheart iallach a chur ar phobal ar bith glacadh le mórshiúl poiblí trína chomharsanacht gan a chuid imní a ghlacadh dáiríre.

Agus ní chiallaíonn “glacadh dáiríre” go n-aithnítear na hábhair imní agus go sáraítear iad ina dhiaidh sin.

Ciallaíonn sé go gcaithfidh toiliú an phobail a bheith ina réamhriachtanas fíor, ní ina fhoirmiúlacht nós imeachta amháin.

Creidimid go gcaithfidh toiliú an phobail, idirphlé agus meas frithpháirteach teacht roimh achrann.

Dá ndéanfaí a mhalairt, bheadh muid ag tabhairt cuireadh do na dinimicí céanna a chruthaigh blianta fada de dhoirteadh fola filleadh.

Creidimid go bhfuil sé de cheart ag muintir na hÉireann — ina n-éagsúlacht ar fad — a dtodhchaí bhunreachtúil a phlé agus a chinneadh go síochánta agus go daonlathach, saor ó scáth na hidé-eolaíochta supremacaí agus ó bhagairt na priocála seicteach.

Deirimid le cónaitheoirí Bhóthar Garvaghy:

Níl sibh in bhur n-aonar.

Is é bhur stair ár stair.

Is streachailt í bhur n-iarracht ar dhínit ar bhur sráid féin a théann i bhfeidhm ar an oileán ar fad.

Tá gach ceart agaibh a rá ní hea.

Tá gach ceart agaibh a éileamh go mbeadh bhur dtoiliú tábhachtach.

Agus tá gach ceart agaibh a bheith ag súil nach gcuirfear ceachtanna na staire fuiltí i leataobh ar mhaithe le háisiúlacht institiúideach nó brú polaitiúil.

AR SON ÉIRE AONTAITHE.

Ní Éire atá tógtha ar an ardcheannas — Briotanach ná eile.

Ní Éire atá tógtha ar an seicteachas ná ar phobal amháin a chur faoi chois ag pobal eile.

Ní Éire í ina gcuirtear traidisiún amháin os cionn traidisiúin eile de bharr mheáchan na staire impiriúla nó na cumhachta institiúidí.

Ní Éire í a dhéanann dearmad ar a stair fhuilteach agus a cháineann í féin dá bhrí sin an stair sin a athdhéanamh.

Ach Éire atá bunaithe ar chomhionannas, daonlathas, dínit, toiliú agus meas ar gach pobal.

Éire a thugann aghaidh go hionraic ar a stair agus a roghnaíonn todhchaí eile.

Éire nach féidir le haon pharáid, aon choimisiún ná aon chúirt ceart bunúsach pobail a shárú chun a rá:

Is é seo ár mbaile, agus tá ár dtoiliú tábhachtach.

Iarraimid ar mhic léinn, ar lucht acadúil agus ar bhaill phobal níos leithne Choláiste na Tríonóide na saincheisteanna seo a léamh, a phlé agus dul i ngleic leo.

Ní saincheisteanna imeallacha iad na ceisteanna a ardaíonn Bhóthar Garvaghy.

Téann siad i gcroílár na ceiste faoi cén cineál sochaí atá á tógáil againn, agus faoi cé acu atá gealltanais na síochána agus an chomhionannais fíor nó nach bhfuil iontu ach focail.

19ú Coiste Éigeandála Colóiciam na Mac Léinn Dlí de chuid Choláiste na Tríonóide