Dialogue is Priceless

Dialogue is key to a peaceful summer; Tour of the North resolution welcomed.

(is this an image that can hopefully be consigned to the past!)

The recent developments and decisions made on this year's Tour of the North parade are a positive step forward. The Tour over past years has been one of the most highly contested and volatile of the Orange marching calendar and has often brought with it some of the most violent interface clashes seen in North Belfast. I would applaud the work & the engagement that has led to this resolution and would hope that this will become an expected normality in how the parading issue must be addressed. Entrenchment, belligerence, demands and immobility must be replaced with constructive & sustained dialogue. Parades are a massive influence on the climate of interfaces in North Belfast & hopefully a peaceful Tour will prove as a positive litmus for the summer.

The issues of addressing interface conflict must be similarly approached, sustained & constructive dialogue must be sought, brokered & fostered by those with influence in their community and encouraged between residents living across the interfaces.

Direct engagement between residents on both sides of the interface in Ardoyne, Woodvale, Glenbryn, New Lodge, Tigers Bay, Clifton Park Avenue, Lower Oldpark is central to unlocking the myths of the "Otherside" that allow interface violence and tension to fester in North Belfast. Talk may be said to be cheap, but when constructive & sustained, dialogue is priceless.

An Roisin Dubh