Examination of Witnesses (Questions 235
- 239)
WEDNESDAY 31 MARCH 2004
MR ROBERT
S SAULTERS, MR
WILLIAM ROSS,
AND MR
DENIS J WATSON
Q235 Chairman: Gentlemen, welcome.
Perhaps I could say a particularly warm welcome to Mr Ross back
to these precincts; it is very nice to see you here, and it is
nice to see the other two as well. Thank you for coming to help
us with our inquiry. The memorandum you have sent us is strongly
critical—I hope that is not too strong a phrase to use—of
the Parades Commission because you say that its determinations
are inaccurate, inconsistent, and that it has failed in some cases
to verify the evidence which has been given to it by those who
oppose these parades. Have you raised the concerns that you have
raised with us directly with the Commission?
Mr Saulters: Yes. First of all,
Mr Chairman and members of the Northern Ireland Affairs Committee,
thank you very much indeed for having us. We have raised in letters
to the Parades Commission quite a number of them since July last
year, and one in particular, which I heard mentioned, about the
Whiterock parade at the end of June was comparatively quiet this
year. I am afraid I would have to put that down to the good works
of Gerry Adams this year because he came out the week before the
Whiterock parade and told his followers on the Springfield Road
that they would have to be good boys. I believe it was because
the elections were coming up and I would lay that at the comparatively
quiet year last year. Now, following from that, it was also said
that the Whiterock parade was very well organised itself and that
is the case. We have had letters from the Parades Commission listing
bands who had stopped within the gates, one of them in seven seconds,
and not forgetting for this past three years for that particular
parade that the music has been stopped on coming out of the gates
on the Springfield Road, first of all, three years ago about 100
yards up the road, the second year about 200 yards up the road
and last year it was half a mile up the road, so we are gradually
being pushed back further and further.
Q236 Chairman: The question I was
asking you, Mr Saulters, was whether these are concerns you have
raised directly with the Commission and what response have you
had?
Mr Saulters: Yes, I have written
to them. Actually one of the reasons, and I was coming to it,
why my own Lodge was stopped going up on the Twelfth Night was
because I was seen in front of a paramilitary band in a photograph
which the Chairman had. It took me six letters and almost six
months to get the honest answer, and the honest answer was that
they did not have the photograph, but they had it on tape. Now,
I do not know whether that is right or not. I was invited in to
see it on tape, but I do not take tapes because the tape could
show me at the front of a parade with maybe a paramilitary flag
a way back which I do not inspect before the parade goes off,
but they certainly did not have that photograph on which the determination,
I believe, was placed on my Lodge on the Twelfth Night.
Q237 Chairman: Over the years, have
you seen any improvements because of complaints you have made?
Mr Saulters: No, we have only
started writing about our complaints in these past two years.
Our Grand Lodge does not allow the Grand Lodge officers to meet
with the Parades Commission as we had seen them from the very
start as a go-between for the police. Now, the 11/1s were mentioned;
we put the 11/1 in and it was only about two years ago that we
realised that the police also put an 11/9 in with recommendations
for that particular parade. They also have another 11/3 if they
think it is going to cause trouble in the community.
Q238 Chairman: You probably heard
Sir Anthony tell us that the Commission wrote to you on 6 February
last year and that they have not had a reply. Is that the case?
Mr Watson: Mr Chairman, I am not
aware of a letter being received at the headquarters of the Grand
Lodge office, though I will certainly check our records when we
return to the Province on Friday, but we are certainly not aware
of correspondence we have received.
Q239 Chairman: Well, I am very glad
to have facilitated one exchange between the two of you because
if you have not received it, you can ring them up and ask them
to send it up, can you not?
Mr Watson: Well, equally there
has been correspondence sent to Bedford Street, to their headquarters,
to which we have not had the courtesy of a reply.
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