Local row with no heroes

It was Patrick Kavanagh who wrote that Homer made an epic from a local row. Drumcree is one such row. But, unlike the Odyssey, it has no heroes. It has damaged reputations, not made them. It has also played a direct role in the deaths of Michael McGoldrick, Robert Hamill, Adrian Lamph, Frank O'Reilly, Billy Wright, the three Quinn children, Rosemary Nelson and, on July 4th this year, Ciaran Cummins. Ten people, nine of them Catholic. Not to mention the hundreds injured, the thousands intimidated out of their homes, including police families, the millions of pounds worth of damage to churches, Orange halls, and other property, the millions of pounds spent on security.

It is remarkable how this disagreement in a small Armagh town came to sweep into its poisonous current an American president, a British Prime Minister, an Irish Taoiseach, and to no avail; proving, as Churchill remarked after World War I, the waters of that cataclysm receded to reveal once more "the dreary steeples of Fermanagh and Tyrone" - nothing will disturb the integrity of that quarrel.

Drumcree made David Trimble, and has threatened to undo him ever since. His triumphant march into Portadown, hand in hand with Ian Paisely, after the parade was forced down the Garvaghy Road in 1995, ensured he followed Jim Molyneaux as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party.

But that very image of the two unionist leaders dancing a jig on Carleton Street also steeled the determination of Garvaghy residents that Orange feet would never again march through their community. Through David Trimble, Drumcree helped bring about the Belfast Agreement, but it then became the very focus for those most determined to destroy it.

This book is at its best when looking at the background to Drumcree. Its history of the foundation of the Orange Order at nearby Loughgall and the evolution of Portadown as the Orange citadel, as well as its account of opposition to the march in the latter decades of the last century, is invaluable for aficionados and veterans of this impasse.

But it does not add much to what is already known since Drumcree 1 in 1995. This suggests, and in particular considering the two journalists involved, that the book was something of a rushed job. Which is a pity because both men, with their reputations, knowledge, and insight into the Northern conflict, had the capacity to produce something quite unique, even epic, about Drumcree.

Because Drumcree is quite unique, as acknowledged in the book's final lines. It quotes "a senior British official" who is "a veteran of many bruising negotiations within the EU, in the reunification of Germany and at the United Nations". He said: "Drumcree. Ah! It's in a league of its own."

That said this book does give a comprehensive account of what happened there between 1995 and 2000. Its strengths lie in its handling of the RUC, Chruch of Ireland, and Orange perspectives and it is clear the Chief Constable Ronnie Flanagan, the Archbishop of Armagh Robin Eames, and senior - probably more moderate - Orange figures co-operated fully with the authors. It seems to be on less sure ground where presentation of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition perspective is concerned. This is not to suggest that the presentation of that perspective is skewed. It is not. It is just not as detailed or insightful.

An instance is its coverage of the fateful "Carpet Mills' Talks" in 1996 where the church leaders attempted to arrange an accommodation between the residents and the Portadown Orangemen. These talks failed but in a manner which left an after-taste which still lingers with the residents. Since then they have never trusted the Church of Ireland primate Archbishop Robin Eames, who is the bishop with pastoral responsibility for Drumcree parish. They believe, rightly or wrongly, that the RUC had told the Archbishop while the talks were in progress that the march was being forced down that year, and that he allowed a charade continue, rather than tell them the talks were futile.

They felt they were misled and betrayed by him, a view which has persisted and which was repeated to this reporter by Breandβn Mac Cionnaith of the residents just after Drumcree this year. It means that every initiative Dr Eames has attempted, to break the impasse since, has been doomed to suspicion among the residents. It also means his handling of the crisis within his own church has come to be viewed by them with a jaundiced outlook. Less sceptical others have viewed it with bemusement.

Possibly of deeper significance were the implications of those Carpet Mills' Talks for relations between the primates of the Catholic and Church of Ireland churches. Sources indicate that the Garvaghy Road residents were not the only ones to believe they were duped by Archbishop Eames on that occasion.

It is believed that Cardinal Cahal Daly, who was then Catholic primate and bishop with pastoral responsibility for the Garvaghy Road residents, and who represented the Catholic Church at the Carpet Mills' Talks, also felt Archbishop Eames had not acted in good faith and was less than candid with him too.

It may be remembered how unusually and publicly angry Dr Daly was when the march was forced through that year and the quite exceptional force of the language he used. Sources indicate this anger was fuelled as much by Dr Eames's behaviour as by the RUC's. Relations between the two men remained strained afterwards.

And relations between Cardinal Daly's successor, Archbishop Sean Brady, and his neighbour in Armagh, Archbishop Eames, have never reached the same cordial level as was once realised between Cardinal Daly and Dr Eames. Indeed it is not without significance that there has been no joint initiative forthcoming from Armagh on Drumcree since those Carpet Mills' Talks in 1996.

What would also have been interesting in the book is a more full account of the quite fierce struggle between moderates and hardliners in the Order at Grand-Lodge level as Drumcree progressed. It would have been fascinating to hear more about the efforts of men such as Rev Brian Kennaway and Rev Warren Porter in particular to reform the Order, ridding it of its more sectarian elements to turn it into a more accurate - and acceptable - manifestation of Protestant culture.

It gives a good account, however, of Joel Patton and the farcical "Spirit of Drumcree Group", not least in its attempted attack on the Rev William Bingham. And, on the Rev Bingham - the closest to a genuine hero yet thrown up by Drumcree - the book did not succeed in conveying the full dramatic power of his deeply moving sermon the morning the Quinn children were killed. There should also have been a more full account of the suffering Rev Bingham and his family endured afterwards at the hands of thugs who disagreed with that sermon. Also somewhat neglected is the select vestry at Drumcree. This is a very interesting collection of men, most of them in the Orange Order, whose views are as unequivocal as they are strident.

It could be argued that they, along with the Rev John Pickering and his wife Olive - neither members of the Order - have been the rock which has ensured the service and protest continues at Drumcree.

Patsy McGarry is the Religious Affairs Correspondent of The Irish Times. He has covered events at Drumcree extensively