Seán Crowe (Dublin South West, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

The first march of the season lays down a marker for what happens during the remainder of the season. The tension that emerged around this incident could have been better managed. It highlights how far we have left to go with policing.

Sinn Féin held a conference this month entitled Belfast: A City of Equals which was attended by various PSNI local officers. Representatives of the Unionist community were also invited. The conference provided an opportunity, on foot of the Cardiff talks, to discuss policing, community relations and other issues affecting the Unionist community. All of us share a responsibility for this process but it was a bad beginning to the marching season and, if we learned anything from the Cardiff talks, it is that we must keep open the channels of communications. That is the message I would like to send to the Orange Order and others. We need to engage with each other's communities and step back to consider our responsibilities during the marching season.

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