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Loyalist flute band banned from parading through Rasharkin

Causeway Coast and Glens councillor Padraig McShane was arrested during a parade involving Dervock Young Defenders in Ballycastle on July 12
Causeway Coast and Glens councillor Padraig McShane was arrested during a parade involving Dervock Young Defenders in Ballycastle on July 12 Causeway Coast and Glens councillor Padraig McShane was arrested during a parade involving Dervock Young Defenders in Ballycastle on July 12

NATIONALISTS have welcomed a decision to ban a Co Antrim flute band from parading this week through a mainly nationalist village.

Dervock Young Defenders have been told they will not be allowed to take part in the march through Rasharkin on Friday night because of their behaviour at a Twelfth parade last month.

Up to 21 bands are expected to take part in the march which has been organised by Ballymaconnelly Sons of Conquerors.

The village has been at the centre of a long-running parades dispute involving residents and loyal orders.

Members of the Dervock flute band came to prominence last month when members, some of whom were wearing Union flag facemasks, were involved in a confrontation with independent Causeway Coast and Glens councillor Padraig McShane during a July 12 parade in Ballycastle.

Mr McShane was then arrested following an altercation with police. 

Days later the band was in the headlines again when a bus used by it was burnt out in a suspected arson attack.

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In a hard-hitting determination, the Parades Commission said it received information and evidence about the “band’s perceived provocative conduct on that day included wearing face masks, drunkenness and rowdy and antagonistic behaviour”.

It also said it received complaints that a “protester’s conduct had been threatening and provocative”. The commission said strict conditions imposed on the parade in previous years are still required but “it has also considered it necessary and proportionate to mitigate heightened community tensions by excluding from the parade the Dervock flute band".

Other restrictions include a ruling that bands should only play a single side drumbeat between Orangefield Place and 35C Main Street.

The parade has also been instructed to disperse by 9pm.

Flags, bannerettes and symbols bearing proscribed organisations have also been banned.

Sean Hanna from Rasharkin Residents Collective said the group's solicitor Michael Brentnall, who also represents Padraig McShane, made representations to the Parades Commission on its behalf.

“It was unacceptable that Dervock would be allowed to walk through a Catholic area,” he said.

Mr McShane last night said it was a “a common sense approach by the Parades Commission - given what happened in Ballycastle the banning of this band is unsurprising”.

“Both them and plenty of bands from the loyalist fraternity will need to be looked at closely in the future,” he said.

North Antrim Sinn Féin assembly member Daithi McKay also welcomed the ban.

"The decision not to allow this band to take part will reduce tensions around the parade this year, as will the restrictions on flags,” he said.

"While these determinations are welcome, the local community need to see a resolution to this issue.”