I SPENT a few days last week at the D’Arcy McGee Summer School in Carlingford.

I had intended to write about the beauty of the town, its wonderfully welcoming people, and how much I enjoyed and learned at this magnificent summer school. But as ever, issues closer to home have raised their ugly heads.

My first thought on hearing about the Garvaghy Road court decision was: “Well, that’s one way to deflect public attention from your many, and seemingly mounting, problems. Resurrect the Drumcree stand-off.”

Never mind the mayhem that would undoubtedly accompany this if it were to be successful: the damage to community relations, public morale, and possibly life and limb; the added pressure inflicted on an already overworked and under-resourced police service; and the welcome deflection it would afford your main Executive partners-in-inaction from their own issues.

Unionists like me are appalled that some want to re-open the Drumcree dispute

Denis Bradley: Keep the Parades Commission, and create a Border Poll Commission too

All of this, it seems, would be a small price to pay – not least because others would be picking up the tab.

Did the Parades Commission (PC) mess up? Of course it did, leaving itself wide open to the likes of last week’s High Court charade.

Were its “procedural errors” by-products of our flourishing-for-some peace industry (where too many of the same people........

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