How this situation came about can be summed up as follows. In November 1985, the government of the United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland signed an agreement with Ireland. For the first time, Dublin had a say in the governing of NI - albeit an advisory role, Unionists were apoplectic with fury, and the “Ulster Says No" campaign was a launched. Whilst unionist paranoia had reached a fewer pitch, there did seem to be a new determination on the security forces to face down loyalist street disorder. Or, to be more accurate, there seemed to be the political will to use the RUC to quell loyalist street disorder. Much, but by no means all of this, seemed to be in Portadown, more specifically, Obins Street.
For many years, Orange Order parades travelled through Obins Street on their way to Drumcree Parish Church. Nationalist residents increasingly objected to the marches, arguing that repeated loyalist parades through their area were intimidating and that they were not treated equally when seeking to hold St Patrick’s Day parades elsewhere in Portadown.
In 1985, tensions escalated following disputes surrounding parades in Portadown. In response to growing disorder, the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) decided to prevent Orange Order marches from using the Obins Street/Tunnel route. In 1986, after further serious violence, the route was formally redirected. The Orange Order subsequently travelled towards Drumcree using the Garvaghy Road, which created a new and even more prominent dispute as more houses were built, which were occupied by Catholics.
At Obins Street, Unionist politicians could be heard saying to loyalist protestors that “Dublin’s giving the orders.” Ian Paisley himself, at a political event in June 1986, added to the increasing hysteria in his own tried and tested formulaic way: the BBC reporting that:
after accusing some of the police officers of mistreating him, Reverend Paisley shouted: "Don't come crying to me if your homes are attacked. You will reap what you sow".
Drumcree in the 1990s – Standing Up for God and Ulster
In the early hours of one summer morning, in the mid-1990s, a senior RUC officer walked to where a mother was standing with her young sons, who would have been about the same ages as the murdered Quinn brothers. The boys were wavering, tired, their eyes starting to close. The RUC man addressed the mother: “would you not be better off getting those wee boys home to bed?” The mother looked down and barked at her children “stand up straight for God and Ulster!” The incident stayed in the RUC man’s mind for many years after it happened.
The Orange Order, and violent loyalism was defeated at Drumcree. The “Orange Card” – which was basically “might is right” in the form of the threat of apocalyptic violence, never carried the same weight again. Loyalists tried it a few more times, with diminishing returns.
Obins, Drumcree, Harryville, Holy Cross, Flags… Loyalists lost every fight they’ve started.
Until 2026… and The Ruling by the Parades Commission
In decades to come, this will still be seen as the stupidest, most counterproductive decision taken by an entity in Northern Ireland. Conspiracy theories will abound as to why on earth close to 30 years of peace was upended by a decision.
But, the fact remains, that the Parades Commission made that decision. It ruled that 35 Orangemen could march silently, at 8am, down the Garvaghy Road.
The residents, and their supporters, blocked the road. In doing so, they adopted an approach which has some similarities to that which loyalists of the 90s took – they went for might-is-right. Let me head off any criticism of the comparison: there is a massive difference. Those on the Garvaghy Road are peaceful, are not threatening widespread murder and disorder, and are behaving in an unreproachable manner.
But they were happy with the Parades Commission until it made a decision they didn’t like, at which point they used sheer physical presence to prevent its decision being carried out.
Isn’t that hypocrisy?
Isn’t that what Bryson and Portadown LOL No 1 want?
Wouldn’t it have been better to let the 35 prize specimens waddle silently down a road and then take to the courts to make sure it doesn’t happen again?
My Tuppence Worth
I think the Chief Constable of the PSNI has a raft of issues, personal and political, that make him ill-suited to dealing with the situation that has unfolded. Within his ranks are Continuity RUC types, that probably dislike him as much as they dislike the residents of the Garvaghy Road. Could these officers have offered the Parades Commission some sort of false guarantees? Could this be about getting Boutcher to resign? Predictably, some are calling for it. Yet he won’t go. But he’s going to be having a bad week or two.
Jamie Bryson, on the other hand, will be delighted. He’d have been devastated if the Orangemen had got to go for a silent Sunday stroll.
Should nationalists have shown some magnanimous pathos and let the Orangemen take their heavily restricted walk?
This piece is designed to stimulate debate. I hope that it follows.
⏩Brandon Sullivan is a middle-aged West Belfast émigré. He juggles fatherhood & marriage with working in a policy environment and writing for TPQ about the conflict, films, books, and politics.
I think the Commission’s decision has to be seen in the context of what happened immediately beforehand. Its previous decision-making had been exposed as sloppy, with WhatsApp discussions, procedural failings and a resignation. Under pressure to show it could get things right, I think it overcorrected and made the wrong call.
ReplyDeleteWouldn’t it have been better to let the 35 prize specimens waddle silently down a road and then take to the courts to make sure it doesn’t happen again?
Sam McBride ..."Could a ‘one and done’ final Drumcree parade work? A dead Orangeman’s words show this was offered in a secret process"
Great piece Brandon.
ReplyDeleteI somehow think the residents did not think the parades commission would return this decision. Heads in the sand situation that this issue was done .They chose not to engage with the Orange Order, who were very clever in the way they used the law. The same way that SF/Republicans used the law in saying we just want equality.
Its opened up wounds and just shows that 28 years after the signing of the GFA how divided the North can be.
Stormont is a failure.
Very good piece Brandon.
ReplyDeleteIf the North had not been polluted by the poison of sectarianism the best outcome would be one where the Garvaghy Road residents had no interest in objecting to a parade, while the Orange Order had no interest in holding a parade.
But the opposition to any assertion of Orange supremacy (no matter how fictional that supremacy actually is) or fidelity to that supremacy (Which is what the march is about) is so visceral that the idea of the residents with their collective cultural memory of 21 killings linked to previous parades, is simply a non starter.
I think SF could have played it cuter in order not to be outflanked on any part of the board by the DUP but still feel they were right to weigh in behind the residents and strongly oppose this march.
Jamie and Carla have picked the wrong hill to die on. They have united nationalist Ireland more cohesively than it has been in years while at the same time thinly papering over the deep cracks within unionism.
Like TPQ recently said in relation to Declan Kearney, Jamie is more than welcome to appear on these pages to explain his case.