Drumcree conflict

Each July from 1995 to 2000, the dispute drew international attention as it sparked protests and violence throughout Northern Ireland, prompted a massive police and British Army operation, and threatened to derail the peace process.

From 1998 onward, the march was banned from Garvaghy Road and the army sealed off the Catholic area with large steel, concrete and barbed-wire barricades.

[11] In his History of Ireland Vol I (published in 1809), historian Francis Plowden described what followed this sermon: [Reverend Devine] so worked up the minds of his audience, that upon retiring from service [...] they gave full scope to the anti-papistical zeal, with which he had inspired them; falling upon every Catholic they met, beating and bruising them without provocation or distinction, breaking the doors and windows of their houses, and actually murdering two unoffending Catholics in a bog.The first official Orange parade to and from Drumcree Church was in July 1807.

In 1835, Armagh magistrate William Hancock (a Protestant) wrote that "For some time past the peaceable inhabitants of the parish of Drumcree have been insulted and outraged by large bodies of Orangemen parading the highways, playing party tunes, firing shots and using the most opprobrious epithets they could invent".

[15] In March 1972, thousands of loyalists attended an Ulster Vanguard rally in the town, which was addressed by Martin Smyth (Grand Master of the Orange Order) and the mayor of Portadown.

[16] Following this, Catholic residents formed a protest group named the "Portadown Resistance Council", which called for the upcoming marches to be re-routed away from Obins Street (see map).

[25] 1985 was the first time the band had been given permission to march the route, following a high-profile campaign backed by Bríd Rogers which saw letters posted to senior politicians in Britain, the Republic of Ireland, and United States.

Growing cooperation between Ireland and the United Kingdom developing into what became the Anglo-Irish Agreement provided the context for the RUC relenting on the issue, although on the condition the band complete their route in the predominantly Catholic area without displaying the Irish tricolour or have any accompanying supporters.

In the two-day clashes, at least 52 police officers and 28 rioters were injured, 37 people were arrested (including two Ulster Defence Regiment soldiers) and about 50 Catholic-owned homes and businesses were attacked.

[16] The Apprentice Boys of Derry, a Protestant fraternity similar to the Orange Order, had planned to march along Garvaghy Road and through the town centre on the afternoon of 1 April (Easter Monday).

They made their opposition known through the tenants' associations that represented each housing estate, the Drumcree Faith & Justice Group (DFJG), and local politicians.

[35] According to one of its members, Joanne Tennyson, "Although the GRRC could speak to anyone they wanted, at the end of the day no-one in the committee had the right to say we would do anything [...] The community had to agree as a whole and that was the purpose of holding public meetings".

Harold Gracey (head of the Portadown Orange Lodge) and William McCrea (a DUP politician) attended the rally and made speeches in support of Wright.

[56] As residents were also unable to reach the Catholic church, the local priests held an open-air mass in front of a line of soldiers and armoured personnel carriers.

In 1997, Sinn Féin leader Gerry Adams told an RTÉ journalist of his party's involvement in the dispute:Ask any activist in the north, "did Drumcree happen by accident?

[67] A loyalist group calling itself "Portadown Action Command" issued a statement which read:As from midnight on Friday 10 July 1998, any driver of any vehicle supplying any goods of any kind to the Gavaghy Road will be summarily executed.

Shortly before 5 pm a Catholic-owned business was gutted in a petrol-bomb attack and others were damaged by men openly armed with baseball bats, chains and crowbars.

[27]: 285–286 During a confrontation in the Corcrain Road area of Portadown, a loyalist threw a pipe bomb packed with explosives, ammunition and shotgun pellets at a line of RUC officers shielding a Catholic enclave.

Two police officers were seriously injured; one of them, 30-year-old Constable Frank O'Reilly, a Catholic-born practicing Presbyterian, took the full force of the blast, shattering his riot shield.

O'Reilly had lost an eye, had shrapnel embedded in his skull and spent five weeks in critical condition in Royal Victoria Hospital before succumbing to his injuries on 6 October.

[72] That month, DUP politician and Orangeman Paul Berry said Orangemen would not be stopped from marching the Garvaghy Road: "If it is a matter of taking the law into our own hands then we are going to have to do it.

[72] On 5 July, police in Portadown arrested four Belfast loyalists after finding pickaxe handles, wire cutters, petrol and combat clothing in their car.

[77] In April 2000, a newspaper reported that Portadown Orangemen had threatened British Prime Minister Tony Blair, saying that if that year's march was banned from Garvaghy Road it would prove to be his "Bloody Sunday".

[79] On 31 May, a children's cross-community concert at St John's Catholic Church was disrupted by Portadown Orangemen beating Lambeg drums, allegedly trying to drown it out.

[80] On 16 June, Catholic workers at Denny's factory in Portadown walked-out after placards carrying sectarian slogans were erected near the main entrance.

[81] That month, Portadown Orangeman Ivan Hewitt, who sported neo-Nazi tattoos, warned in a TV documentary that it may be time for loyalists to "bring their war to Britain".

[83] A prominent leader of the protesters, Mark Harbinson, a Stoneyford Orangeman who was associated with the paramilitary Orange Volunteers, proclaimed that "the war begins today".

[83] On Monday 3 July, a crowd of over fifty loyalists led by UDA commander Johnny Adair, appeared at Drumcree with a banner bearing "Shankill Road UFF" Ulster Freedom Fighters.

[82] Two days later, a group of up to 200 loyalists ordered all shops in Portadown town centre to shut, then tried to march on Garvaghy Road from both ends, but were held back by police.

[93] In late July 2024, Portadown Orange District LOL 1 submitted an application to march down the Garvaghy Road during the 2024 All-Ireland Senior Football Championship final, in which Armagh were to compete, stating that the parade would "bring the least impact on the majority of the community that live there, as most will either be away to Croke Park, or in clubs, pubs, or at home" (sic.).