New Zoom Virtual Meeting Guest Speaker Features Foreign Minister Conor Murphy

SDLP Leader Claire Hanna MP has renewed her call for an end to the Drumcree dispute, urging the Secretary of State to rescind permission for the parade and move the issue off the streets and into a structured process of dialogue, allowing residents of the Garvaghy Road to return to their normal lives.

“The reality is that this parade should never have been given permission in the first place and it never should again. What followed was weeks of unnecessary tension, disruption to residents' lives, enormous pressure on policing and damage to community relations that will take time to repair.“This was a reprehensible attempt to drag our society back to one of the darkest chapters of our recent history. The people of Garvaghy Road should never have been put through this ordeal, and those who sought to exploit the situation for political advantage should reflect seriously on the consequences of their actions.

Much of our Irish world breathes a sigh of relief at the denial of yet another attempt to show hate, and a return to the dark times of accepted bigotry based solely on being Irish, going back centuries.Your still present hate has been noted for the world to see, again.

“Like many families across the North, my own family experienced the trauma of loss during the Troubles. That has strengthened my determination to offer a kind of leadership that does not lean into old divisions, but challenges us to cross them.