Permission has been granted for an Orange Walk to take place in Edinburgh in June.
Edinburgh councillors at a licensing meeting approved the notification of the march on 26 June.
The march will include a flute band which celebrated a UVF terrorist as a hero. Dumbarton’s Pride of the Rock flute band has celebrated William “Big Bill” Campbell previously, including in a now-deleted February 2024 Facebook post.
Campbell was named as the UVF’s leader in Scotland during the Troubles. He was sentenced for his part in the 1971 Glasgow pub bombings, and has also been linked to a bombing in Belfast which killed 15 people.
The band was to take part in a walk in Stonehaven in March 2024 to celebrate the opening of a new Orange lodge, but a large local backlash ensued over the planned demonstration, including the participation of the flute band. Aberdeenshire councillors refused to issue the notification of the march, which local Orange groups appealed.
By the time the appeal would have been heard at the Sheriff Court, the proposed date of the march had passed.
The band is one of 38 set to take part. Councillors have narrow grounds to refuse to permit a demonstration to go ahead, and risk legal action being taken when refusing a march. Public safety and policing officials did not object to the march going ahead.
By Joseph Sullivan Local Democracy Reporter
