Drumcree Dispute: Garvaghy Road Residents Warn Against Orange Order March
Northern Ireland political parties are scheduled to meet with the Parades Commission ahead of a crucial decision regarding an application by the Orange Order to march along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown this Sunday, September 27th.
Parades Commission Decision and Proposed Route
The Parades Commission is set to rule on an application for 60 Orange Order members to participate in a proposed Drumcree parade on Sunday, September 27th, according to RTÉ.ie and The Irish Times. The ruling follows intense pressure and criticism from unionist politicians last month after a High Court ruling quashed the commission’s most recent determination over the march. The commission has blocked the Orange Order from marching along the Garvaghy Road in July every year since 1998, a route that became a focal point of intense sectarian tension and violent clashes during the 1990s.
Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition Opposition
Residents of the largely nationalist area have strongly opposed the proposed demonstration, warning that it could reawaken past traumas. In a letter sent to the Parades Commission following a meeting on Tuesday, the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition urged the ruling body to impose strict conditions to prevent participants and supporters from congregating near the route or proceeding from Drumcree church along Drumcree Road and Garvaghy Road into Portadown town centre.
According to The Irish Times, the residents’ letter stated that “an entire generation of young people from our community has grown up and reached adulthood without having to experience the humiliation and fear, tension and violence, or the physical sieges that accompanied those unwanted sectarian marches of the mid and late 1990s.” The group asserted that reviving the march “would undoubtedly resurrect past memories and traumas, lead once again to oppressive policing operations, increase tensions, and reawaken and sustain old animosities and divisions.”
The coalition further claimed that the application represents a desire by the Orange Order, backed by unionist political parties, to replicate the inflammatory victory march of 1995 led by Ian Paisley and David Trimble. SDLP leader Claire Hanna also met with the commission on Tuesday to discuss the contentious application.