When the Drumcree dispute began a mere 31 years ago it was common to hear people in Portadown complain that if Sinn Féin had ignored the issue for another few years, time would have taken care of the problem. The annual Orange Order parade had involved a dwindling number of participants, many at an advanced age.
This was probably a fond delusion, but it is revealing that middle-of-the-road unionists were telling themselves such a tale – one that handily absolved them of any responsibility, other than to tut-tut at republican agitation.
The same class of people can now ask why all three main unionist parties are threatening to revive the dispute, rather than letting it fade into history.
Drumcree led directly to the British government establishing the Parades Commission, which has been instrumental in bringing peace to the streets. There has been no serious parade-related disorder in Northern Ireland for more than a decade. Although unionist parties and the Orange Order have never officially recognised the commission’s authority, they have all recognised it in practice by obeying its regulations and determinations. Failure to do so is a criminal offence. They have also gradually accepted its underlying principle that contentious parades require engagement with residents.
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The commission cannot ban a parade outright – only the Northern Secretary has that power – but since its establishment in 1998 it has imposed route restrictions in Portadown that prevent the return leg of the Drumcree parade along the Garvaghy Road.
Every year, Portadown’s Orange Lodge reapplies to the commission, which reissues the restriction. Orangemen then march from Drumcree Church to the start of the rerouted section, where they hand over a letter of protest to a police officer. A token protest also takes place every week.
This has evolved over the years from an angry stand-off to a familiar ritual. People often suggest, only half in jest, that one day it will be a harmless tradition, like the Scarva ‘sham fight’.
Stranger things have happened. Protestants and Catholics were staging good-natured re-enactments of the Siege of Derry by its centenary in 1788.
However, Portadown Orangemen have never given up hope of a return parade, even if it means only a few members symbolically carrying their banner home.
They are aggrieved that their eventual offer to talk to residents has been rebuffed without consequence from the commission, believing this in effect hands residents an absolute veto.
In early July, after the latest commission ruling, a Portadown Orangeman applied for a judicial review. This year’s march from the church was voluntarily cancelled to respect legal proceedings.
Last week, the commission conceded its decision-making had been flawed and asked Belfast High Court to quash the determination on this year’s parade.
On Tuesday, judge Gerry McAlinden delivered his verdict on the commission’s Drumcree decision. It was unusually damning, finding there had been “shortcuts” and “sloppy procedures”. Not all of the six commissioners had even read the final determination before signing it off.
Because the parade date has passed, this has no immediate effect. The Portadown lodge must reapply for next year’s parade but it has warned it will return to court if it does not get a different decision.
The commission has said it will correct its procedures, implying this is all that will change.
The most assertive response has come from the DUP and the TUV. Their leaders have called for the commissioners to resign, or be sacked by the Northern Secretary. Both parties want a review of the entire regulatory framework for parades, saying unionists have been vindicated in never recognising the commission and asking how many other determinations have been flawed. The chair of the UUP has also welcomed the court ruling.
It is easy to see how sloppiness could creep in after 28 years of repeated Drumcree restrictions, but is this unique? The commission was formally notified about 3,800 parades last year, judged 172 to be sensitive and applied restrictions to 142.
If parading regulation unravels, Drumcree would not be the only reawakened flashpoint.
The DUP is in deep electoral trouble, throwing unionism’s party system into flux. All three unionist parties could seize on Drumcree as a totemic issue while they jostle for position before next May’s assembly and council elections.
Sinn Féin is also sliding in the polls and would welcome a distraction. First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said her party “stands with the people of the Garvaghy Road” and that “nobody should seek to reopen wounds which have still not fully healed”.
Few would disagree. Many unionist people would probably sympathise with the case for a small, final parade, but a return to annual parading tensions would be considered a grim prospect by almost everyone, in Portadown and beyond.
Derry’s cross-community siege celebrations did not survive the rising tensions of the 1790s. Progress that appears solid can be all too easily undone.
