Woman in parade attack claim

Published Sunday, 29 August 2010

A 58-year-old woman claims she was beaten by men taking part in a Royal Black Preceptory parade in Ballymena.

The alleged attack happened in Broughshane Street on Saturday afternoon.

Mary McKeown was crossing the road on her way to a hairdresser appointment when up to four men allegedly beat her.

Her son, Don McKeown, says she was treated for her injuries at Antrim Area Hospital.

"She was punched in the face, she was hit on the back of the neck and her fingers are dislocated.

"This was just thuggery, absolute thuggery," he told UTV.

Police say they had initially received a report on Saturday afternoon that a woman had fallen during the parade but the woman later said she had been attacked.

SDLP MLA Declan O'Loan has said he will be reporting the incident to the Parades Commission and the PSNI after visiting the woman involved in the alleged incident.

"I visited this lady at the request of her family on Saturday evening and she was still very shocked," Mr O'Loan said.

"I believe that she was the subject of three separate assaults by different individuals including being punched in the face.

"These assaults were totally unacceptable and they must be fully investigated by the PSNI.

"I will also be contacting the Royal Black Preceptory about these matters and asking them to meet me to discuss them."

The MLA added that other incidents also took place during Saturday's parade.

"In a further serious incident, a large number of RBP participants entered a church car park and urinated against a wall after getting off their buses," he continued.

"This was disgraceful behaviour and parade organisers must ensure that it is never repeated again. I will give full details to the Parades Commission."

The PSNI say they are investigating the claim.

Thousands of people took part in Royal Black Institution parades across Northern Ireland on Saturday.

Comments

38 Comments

seamas in belfast wrote (629 days ago):

BE. This discussion would be more logical and therefore more useful if you would do two things. Firstly deal with facts. Secondly stop making up comments, putting them into other people’s mouths and then providing the responses. For the record I was born and raised in Ardoyne and lived there for over 40 years. My right to comment on this thread however derives from my status as a UTV viewer not my locality. No opponent of the parades has ever suggested that they go through Ardoyne. Our argument against the parades is not based on a claim that they go through Ardoyne. We know the parades don’t go through Ardoyne. It is pointless for you to continue to advise us that the parades don’t go through Ardoyne. That doesn’t diminish our argument since that is not based upon that premise. That’s simply a device by you to cloud the issue. Now no matter how you try to twist things or no matter what allegations you fling about or names that you call me or anyone else the simple fact of the matter is that Loyal Order Parades are about demonstrating Protestant Unionist dominance. That may be acceptable within an entirely Protestant Unionist environment but not in a mixed or predominantly Catholic area. That stretch of the Crumlin Road at Ardoyne from Holy Cross Chapel to Wheatfield Gardens has a large Catholic residency. Sectarian displays such as the type offered by the Loyal Orders are in appropriate along that stretch of the Crumlin Road. Never mind who’s bussed in. Never mind who presents the issue on behalf of residents. Never what your opinion of the parades is. The residents find them offensive so they should be moved. Not banned. Not stopped. Not prevented. Just moved.

BIG ERNEST in east antrim wrote (631 days ago):

seamas , the parades do not go through ardoyne , they come from far away to be intimidated by that parade , furthermore i suspect you dont know that ardoyne does not run up the crumlin road , buy a map or go and look , as for the all we want nonsense , seamas , your not affected by this parade and have no right to use we when speaking about residents objections !! heres a thought , how about the residents from ardoyne stay in ardoyne and stop travelling to be offended at 8am in the morning , did you not see 2 women standing in pj's seamas on tv at the protest ?

seamas in belfast wrote (631 days ago):

BE. You could be right about me. Every time I see LOL in a text or email I think Loyal Orange Lodge instead of Laugh out Loud. I must be getting obsessive. Listen. You used a very particular word. Banned. I’ve never asked for a parade to be banned. Just to be moved away from Catholic homes if the residents ask for that. That’s a critical distinction. Proponents of parading always claim resident’s objections are motivated by a desire to prevent a cultural expression. But that’s not correct. All we want is our feelings to be considered as well. That can be achieved by simply moving the parade. Be honest. Both the recent AB and BP parades at Ardoyne were feeder parades. The marchers paraded past Ardoyne only to board buses to travel to the actual parade up the country somewhere. Could they not have boarded the buses before reaching Ardoyne? Would that not have diffused the situation?

BIG ERNEST in east antrim wrote (632 days ago):

seamus ; funny how your the only one who thinks you preach anything , i actually think you regurgitate sectarian animosity , anyway seamas , unfortunately you will always see the side of disorder being given a platform , no matter what you say you will always ostracize unionism , loyal orders and anything protestant as you have done many many times before , you say that the loyal orders have a right to parade yet everytime a parade issue is on this website your the 1st to be calling for it to be banned !! funny how you have moved your goalposts lol .

Cynical in Belfast wrote (632 days ago):

Not much happening on the republican front today Ernie other than traffic jams on the Westlink, but the UDA's into threats and intimidaion in Tigers Bay if thats any use to you lol

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