Drumcree Conflict

The Drumcree conflict or Drumcree standoff is an ongoing dispute over a yearly parade in the town of Portadown, Northern Ireland. The dispute is between the Orange Order and local residents. The residents are currently represented by the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition (GRRC); before 1995 they were represented mainly by the Drumcree Faith & Justice Group (DFJG). The Orange Order (a Protestant organisation with strong links to unionism) insists that it should be allowed to march its traditional route to-and-from Drumcree Church (see map). It has marched this route since 1807, when the area was sparsely populated. However, today most of this route falls within the town's mainly-Catholic and Irish nationalist quarter, which is densely populated. The residents, who see the parade as "triumphalist" and "supremacist", have sought to re-route it away from their area. The "Drumcree parade" is held on the Sunday before the Twelfth of July.

There have been intermittent violent clashes during the yearly parade since at least 1873. The dispute was intensified by The Troubles, which began in 1969. Before the 1990s, the most contentious part of the parade was the outward leg along Obins Street. When the parade was banned from Obins Street in 1986, the focus shifted to the parade's return leg along Garvaghy Road. In 1995, the dispute drew the attention of the international media as it led to widespread protests and rioting throughout Northern Ireland. This pattern was repeated every July for the next four years. During this time the dispute led to the deaths of at least five civilians and prompted a massive police and British Army operation. The Army sealed-off the nationalist part of Portadown with large steel, concrete and barbed-wire barricades. Since 1998 the parade has been banned from most of the nationalist area, and the violence has subsided. However, regular moves to get the two sides into face-to-face talks have failed.