Drumcree and ‘The Right to March’

Orangeism, Ritual and Politics in Northern Ireland

Bibliographic Data

ID20044352
AuthorsDominic Bryan (corresponding author)
Year2000
Pages191-207
Publication date2000-01-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeCHAPTER
VenueIrish Parading Tradition (SOURCE_BOOK)
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan UK (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1057/9780333993859_13
OpenAlexW2501485016
Open LibraryOL60055M
ISBN9780333993859
LanguageEN
Citations received6
References cited8

In characterisitic style the Reverend Ian Paisley, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), suggested that the future of Northern Ireland lay in the right of members of the Orange Order to parade back from their annual Boyne commemoration church service along the Garvaghy Road, a predominantly Catholic, nationalist area of Portadown in County Armagh. Members of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Group were holding a protest in the road against the parade. The service had been held during the middle of the previous day, a Sunday, and when the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) blocked their return route, the members of the Portadown District Lodge decided that they would remain on the road until they were allowed down. So began what became known as the Siege of Drumcree. There were violent clashes between the RUC and loyalists. Eventually, after mediation, an agreement, the nature of which is still contested, was arrived at to allow the parade along the road and back into Portadown. When the marchers reached Portadown, Ian Paisley and David Trimble, the local Ulster Unionist MP, joined the parade and held their arms aloft in celebration. Their message was that they had won a victory

Ancient history · Democracy · Ethnology · Nationalism · Northern ireland · Parade · Political science · Politics · Siege · Victory · History · Irish and British Studies · Law

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