Residents of a Catholic street in Portadown, Northern Ireland, stood on their road to block an Orange Order parade on Sunday, and nearly a week later they say the trauma of the 1990s has come back with it.
The confrontation on the Garvaghy Road, a Catholic enclave in a largely Protestant town, followed a decision by the Parades Commission on Sept. 25 allowing a small Orange Order contingent to march the road on its return from Drumcree Church, the first approval of the route in 28 years. Residents answered by gathering day after day, linking arms across the street, Al Jazeera reported. Police stopped the march.
For Chris Nelson, the summer had already felt like a relapse. As the dispute built toward the planned parade, he worried about his mother, he told Al Jazeera. At night he lay awake waiting for her to come home. By day he rang relatives to ask if she was safe. There were threats, and letters through the door. Families who lived through the original standoffs say the fear is now passing to people too young to remember the Troubles.
The Garvaghy Road was on the return route of the annual Drumcree parade, and nationalist protests against it in the mid-1990s produced what the BBC called some of the most serious public disorder in Northern Ireland’s history, linked to several murders. Violence peaked after the commission banned the 1998 march. That July, three young brothers died in a firebomb attack on their home in Ballymoney, County Antrim, an attack that turned public opinion, according to the historical record of the conflict. A late injunction blocked this year’s route until the courts lifted it.
The Orange Order has described its application as modest. “Proportionate, inoffensive and wholly reasonable,” Alastair Power, deputy district master of the Portadown district, called it, according to The Irish Times. The order has also called for the remaining Parades commissioners to resign. They are still in post.
The standoff is not over. On Monday morning, shortly after 9:30 a.m., five Orange Order members tried again to march toward Drumcree Road and were turned back by police, the Irish Echo reported. Talks to settle the dispute were continuing this week, the BBC said, with mediators planning more meetings and lodge members still waiting at the church.