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Orange Order 'won't make deals' to resolve Drumcree dispute

Mark SimpsonCommunity correspondent, BBC News NI
BBC Portadown District Master, Nigel Dawson, with other members of the Orange Order in the background and the DUP politician Carla Lockhart by his side. She has long blond hair and is wearing a teal-coloured top. BBC
Portadown District Master, Nigel Dawson, claims the Orange Order has a 'legal right' to complete the 1998 parade

The Orange Order in Portadown has insisted it will not make any deals to try to walk down the Garvaghy Road in the town.

Portadown District Master Nigel Dawson spoke after a meeting at Carleton Street Orange Hall in the town, which lasted two and a half hours.

The Order plans to apply for another Drumcree parade after restrictions imposed on its planned parade last month by the Parades Commission were quashed in court.

It said it will make a significant announcement about this on Thursday morning.

PA Media A wide view of Drumcree Church and its surroundings. The building, which has a tall spire, stands at the edge of a large graveyard and in front of an almost empty car park. There is a small collection of houses lining the road close to the church and there are fields in the foreground and stretching out into the distance. PA Media
Since 1998, the Parades Commission has imposed restrictions on the local Orange lodge's route back from a service at Drumcree Church outside Portadown

Dawson said: "We have a legal right to complete this parade and we go to enforce that right using the law.

"Secondly, there will be no deals made by Portadown District with the government or anyone else.

"To be clear there have been no offers made but should anyone be considering making one we wish to make clear there is no amount of funding, investment or inducements that would buy Portadown district."

The High Court was told last week that the Parades Commission conceded the case and requested the court quash its determination before a full hearing.

The commission conceded a procedural error in how it dealt with the annual application for permission to walk along the Garvaghy Road.

Not all six members of the public authority had signed off on the final determination before it was issued last month.

Meanwhile, the future make-up of the Parades Commission remains in doubt while the Secretary of State, Sir Chris Bryant, considers whether he believes they can rebuild confidence lost as a result of the court case.

The Order in Portadown has called for the remaining commissioners to resign and for a judge-led review be held.

This would include looking at the governance and legislative framework of the Parades Commission.

The front view of the exterior of an Orange Order building on Carleton Street, Belfast. The large, symmetrical three-storey building is constructed of red brick with ornate cream detailing around the arches of its windows on the ground and second floors. A sign above the main entrance says "Orange Hall" with 1908 written above the door. Three flags including the union flag fly from flag posts on the building.
The meeting took place in an Orange Hall in Carleton Street, Portadown

"The review must include an investigation into the events surrounding this court case," Dawson said.

"The person charged with conducting the review should have full access to all commission documentation and the review should be conducted over the shortest period of time with a public-facing report."

Monday night's meeting in the Carleton Street hall involved the order's Portadown district, with 28 lodges invited to send representatives.

Among those who attended were Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) MP Carla Lockhart, DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley, TUV leader Jim Allister and loyalist activist Jamie Bryson.

When the Order applies for another parade it would include walking along the largely-nationalist Garvaghy Road on its return from a service at the Church of Ireland at Drumcree.

Sinn Féin councillor Catherine Nelson last week said such a parade was "off the table" as residents would not agree to it.

Breandan Mac Cionnaith of the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition has said the Orange Order parade "finished" in 1998 and it "will not be repeated".

When did the Drumcree dispute begin?

In 1998, the Parades Commission ruled that the Orange Order should not march down Portadown's Garvaghy Road on the end leg of its annual march from Drumcree Church.

It was a move that sparked some of the most serious public disorder in Northern Ireland's history and led to a decades-long parading dispute.

Stand-offs continued in subsequent years as members of the Order walked to police barricades in protest at the restrictions. Protests were also held by residents living along the Garvaghy Road.

A map of Drumcree