If unionism wanted to prove beyond all doubt that Northern Ireland, as a political entity, is beyond salvation, it could have done no better than to resurrect the conflict on Garvaghy Road in Portadown.

For some time there has been a concerted effort by some within unionism to undermine the Good Friday Agreement, to jeopardise the peace process, and to put nationalists in their place.

‘Croppies lie down’ has always been part of that mindset and always will be.

Well, the croppies are not for lying down – and certainly not for Orange Order supremacists who have made patsies of the Parades Commission, the courts and the British government.

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Secretary of State Chris Bryant – and his predecessors – have been asleep at the wheel, and the system has been played for all its worth.

The legal framework designed to protect vulnerable people has been shown to be completely inadequate for the needs of our times.

How the Parades Commission and the courts came to the conclusion that an Orange Order parade now would be in the best interests of society is anybody’s guess.

It’s a disgrace. Nothing more and nothing less. The discredited commission has run out of road and the British government........

© The Irish News