A bizarre tid-bit of local history arose at the October meeting of the Plenary Council when Fianna Fáil Cllr. Jason Murphy, claimed Sinn Féin Cllr. John Hearne once invited the Orange Order to march in the Waterford St Patrick’s Day Parade.
Cllr. Murphy’s comment came after Cllr. Hearne and Cllr. Donnchadh Mulcahy expressed support for the Garvaghy Road protest in County Armagh. Both Cllr. Hearne and Cllr. Mulcahy attended the Garvaghy Road protest in solidarity with the protesters.
In reply to their comments of support, Cllr. Murphy, said: “While I obviously support the comments from our Sinn Féin colleagues on the Council, in relation to the sectarian parade on the Garvaghy Road I think it should be pointed out that one of our own members Cllr. John Hearne as Metropolitan Mayor actually invited the Orange Order to walk in our St. Patrick’s Day parade in 2017!
“It was widely reported at the time about the Waterford parade that that was an intention. It was sectarian then, it is still sectarian now, and it was always be sectarian,” Cllr. Murphy added.
In reply to this Cllr. John Hearne insisted that he had a right to reply, but Mayor Liam Brazil moved the meeting along.
The Munster Express caught up with Cllr. Hearne following the meeting to get his perspective.
In reference to the Garvaghy Road protest he said: “You see them [Fianna Fáil] going off on trips around the world but it’s the Garvaghy Road where they should be. Fianna Fáil didn’t support the residents at all.”
When asked about inviting the Orange Order to Waterford, Cllr. Hearne said: “I don’t recall the exact article, I think I said I would have no problem once it’s agreed”.
“It’s going into a 100% nationalist area against the wishes of the residents that I have a problem with.”
Speaking to The Munster Express in 2017 about having the Orange Order in the St. Patricks Day Parade, this newspaper reported that no official invitation was sent, but then Mayor Hearne explained Sinn Féin had long experience of being excluded from events and suggested an invitation should be sent to have a parade that was as inclusive as possible.
COUNCILLORS IN ARMAGH
Some of Waterford’s Sinn Féin representatives made the three and a half hour journey to Armagh to join the nationalist community in protest on the Garvaghy Road.
The protest came in response to a High Court decision which overturned a ruling by the Parade Commission which prohibited the Orange Order marching down Garvaghy Road. This prohibition stood for 28 years, despite the Orange Order applying for permission to march almost every year.
In August this year, in a challenge brought by an Orange Order member, the High Court found that not all members of the Border Commission had signed the original decision to ban the march. The ban was overturned and tensions increased as the Orange Order sought to complete the march.
On September 27 a protest gathered to block the route and prevent the march. Sinn Féin politicians, including party leader Mary Lou McDonald, and Northern Ireland First Minister, Michelle O’Neill joined the protestors.
In Waterford, the attendance of TD Conor D. McGuinness drew criticism from former TD Matt Shanahan, who suggested he was not elected to be in the North. McGuinness replied calling Shanahan’s social media posts “childish and centred around your own sense of grievance at not being returned by the electorate after your term as a TD.”
Matt Shanahan narrowly missed out on Waterford’s fourth seat in the 2024 general election, the seat was won by McGuinness.
Perhaps with an awareness of these criticisms, Cllr. Donnchadh Mulcahy issued a statement explaining his own attendance at Garvaghy Road, explaining that he lived near the area as a child and remembers the Troubles.
“A lot of people have asked me why I went to the Garvaghy Road,” he said. “I was born in Craigavon Hospital, only a few miles away, and grew up in Coalisland until I moved to Waterford in 1997.
“I was only 8 when the Good Friday Agreement was signed in 1998. What a beautiful day that was. Unfortunately, some of my clearest childhood memories are from before it. Drumcree. The Garvaghy Road. British soldiers on our streets. Checkpoints. Chinooks in the sky. Are you a Protestant or Catholic and so on … even as a child, that feeling that somehow, you were being treated less of a human being.
“I was only a wee boy, yet nearly 30 years later I can still picture it clear as day. I genuinely believed those were days were gone and our children would never have to experience. The last few weeks brought a lot of those feelings back,” he said.
“We all agree we certainly don’t want our children relive them days. The people of the Garvaghy Road are friends, family and people I care about. That’s why I couldn’t stay at home,” Cllr. Mulcahy added.
AARON KENT Funded by the Local Democracy Reporting Scheme
