February 16, 2011
By Staff Reporter
By Anne Cadwallader
PORTADOWN, Co. Armagh – Tension is rising along the Garvaghy Road as the annual Drumcree Orange parade draws near, with fears of violence despite a ban rerouting the marchers from their estate.
The British-appointed Parades Commission ruled on Monday that since community relations in Portadown would be so badly affected by Sunday’s parade, it should not be permitted along the nationalist Garvaghy Road.
The Commission said the parade must return into Portadown, after marchers attend a church service, by the same route it used to leave the town center. It also ruled that Orangemen could not muster in large numbers close to Drumcree Church.
Orangemen have pledged to defy the ban through a series of street protests and marches, while remaining within the law. They say they will march their normal route despite the ban.
A Garvaghy Road Residents spokesman, Breandan MacCionnaith, said local people would be vigilant, citing that the RUC chief constable may advise Northern Secretary Mo Mowlam to overturn the Commission’s decision on public order grounds.
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The Irish Parades Emergency Committee, of Brooklyn, N.Y., gave a guarded welcome to Commission decision. However, the IPEC called on the British government to stand firmly behind the decision.
In 1996, massive demonstrations took place at Drumcree, leading to the RUC doing a U-turn and forcing the march down the Garvaghy Road. An estimated _20 million in damage was caused by rioting that year, with Northern Ireland being virtually closed down by loyalist roadblocks.
Last year, there were threats to kill local Catholics, and body bags were brought to the area by the RUC in anticipation of deaths. At the last minute, in the middle of the night, the RUC moved into the area under cover of darkness and forced local people from the road to make way for the Orangemen.
The Commission chairman, Alastair Graham, said Drumcree has become a litmus test for both communities in Northern Ireland. He said the ruling was the result or failure by both sides to find a compromise. He criticized Orangemen for refusing to speak to the Commission and residents for failing to understand the importance to Orangemen of the right to assemble and march.
Neither side had absolute rights, he said, and while not underestimating the impact on the Protestant community, he also understood the deeply held feelings of Nationalists about a perceived “second-class citizenship.”
“We have had plans in hand for the past few months and we will now put the strength of the Orange Order into effect, let there be no doubt about that,” Orangeman David McNarry said.
Joel Patton, of the Spirit of Drumcree group, said the Orange Order must organize a systematic and sustained campaign of opposition to the Parades Commission ruling.
“If strong-arm tactics are used on the Garvaghy Road, and if one Orangeman is battoned coming from his church, then the repercussions are that the Assembly will not even get off the ground,” he said. “I don’t believe that one Unionist member will take his seat in it.”
The Ulster Unionist leader, David Trimble, is seeking a meeting with RUC Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan, saying the Commission’s ruling “plunges the community back into conflict.”
Trimble also sent an open letter to the Garvaghy Road residents, telling them they are required to “indicate you will not oppose by physical means the return to central Portadown of the local Orangemen by the Garvaghy Road.”
Respect for the rights of British Ulster people was central to the Stormont Agreement, he said, asking if 20 minutes of tolerance for the Orange Order was not worth undergoing to preserve peace.
Meanwhile, security in and around Portadown is being stepped up in the wake of the decision. One thousand extra British troops have been flown in to back up the RUC.
In previous years, the RUC have come under threat from loyalists, in whose communities they live. In some cases, Orangemen protesting at Drumcree have shown them photographs of their homes and families, threatening to attack them.
In 1996, it’s understood the then RUC Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, faced a near mutiny and this influenced his decision to allow the parade down the Garvaghy Road after a five-day standoff.