Richard Boyd Barrett calls Drumcree march naked sectarianism
Richard Boyd Barrett raised Sheila Carson’s account of her brother’s killing and the threat of an Orange march through Garvaghy Road during an exchange with the Taoiseach. He called for recognition of sectarian intimidation and for communities in the north to be stood up for.
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Transcript
Taoiseach, I just received a letter from a woman called Sheila Carson. She is the sister of Daniel Carson, who was killed by loyalist paramilitaries in 1973 in Belfast.
He was killed just for being a Catholic.
She was writing to thank me and us for standing with the residents of Drumcree against the threat of an orange sectarian march going through the Garra Valley Road, given the history of loyalist killings and violence that led to the death of 21 people.
And she was scathing, and she said I should say this to you, she was scathing of your government and of Andy Burnham for their failure to recognise that what is motivating orange marchers wanting to go through the Garra Valley Road and that led to the death of her brother is naked, naked sectarianism.
And a belief in being triumphalist and treating Catholics in the north as second class citizens that leads to those deaths, the tragic death of her brother and 21 others and many others.
And she wants you and Andy Burnham to stand up for communities who are the subjects of that kind of supremacist ideology and sectarian intimidation.
Deputy Boyd Barrett spoke about Sheila Carson and that she said that we have failed to recognise sectarianism. No we haven't.
The Irish government has never failed to recognise sectarianism.
The Irish government were in fact the party I lead and other parties were central to the Good Friday Agreement, which was to create parity of esteem between all traditions, between citizenship, British citizenship, Irish citizenship within Northern Ireland.
The North Ministerial Council and so forth. So I don't accept that assertion by you at all or by anybody in that respect.
And I don't believe, by the way, the phrase has been used, nationalists are no longer second class citizens in Northern Ireland. They're no longer second class citizens.
But they're not and they never will be. And the Good Friday Agreement was an enormous leap forward in that respect.