“Sinn Fein appear to believe that simply repeating their obstinate and completely detached from reality assertions that Drumcree is ‘closed’, ‘settled’ or ‘off the table’, that this somehow makes it so. 

“They are gaslighting their own community. It’s time Sinn Fein psychologically come to accept that the issue of Drumcree is very much on the table, has never been settled and indeed if the law is properly applied, the Portadown District will indeed once more walk their traditional route. 

“Whilst for 28 years it may understandably have felt like the Parades Commission may as well have been the ‘Sinn Fein Commission’ when it comes to deciding on parades, and this perception has fed the supremacism and woefully misplaced over-confidence so evident in Sinn Fein’s recent statements, the reality is this legal question will not be decided or dictated by Sinn Fein. 

“They are not in control, and the loss of the sense of entitlement and supremacism which has characterised the last two decades in particular will undoubtedly be difficult for Sinn Fein to come to terms with and explain to their base, but comes to terms with it they must. 

“This issue will only be finally resolved around the table, with goodwill on all sides. There is a pathway to achieving that objective, building on recent positive cross-cultural events. This involves proportionately balancing the rights of all citizens, within the correct legal framework, rather than the rights of any one community subjugating the another. 

“The Portadown District wish to see a fair and equitable balance, arriving at a rights based outcome, over-layered with respect and tolerance on all sides. Sinn Fein wants total supremacy, with the rights of nationalists elevated, and the rights of unionists and the Orangemen expunged. This is not sustainable in a pluralist society. 

“I would urge Sinn Fein to dial down the rhetoric, stop gaslighting and whipping up your own base as a means of distracting from your own inability to be honest about what has occurred, and the fact that supremacism and dominance is not going to continue, and as such tolerance and respect will be required. 

“Unionism will continue to approach this issue through a lawful and rights-based framework. We will not be distracted by Sinn Fein’s internal politics as they wrestle to establish themselves in the Garvaghy Road, an area they have long abandoned when it served no proper strategic purpose.”