Orange Order vows to complete controversial parade
ORANGEMEN banned for 20 years from completing a controversial parade have insisted their determination to overturn the prohibition has not dimmed.
The Drumcree parading dispute in Portadown, Co Armagh was a major flashpoint in the 1990s and early 2000s, with the annual event marred by intense violence on a number of occasions.
While tensions have dissipated over the last two decades, Portadown Orangemen continue to campaign to be allowed to walk along the predominantly nationalist Garvaghy Road.
They hold a small protest every week.
The Parades Commission, the Government-appointed panel that adjudicates on contentious marches, has prohibited the Garvaghy section of the parade since 1998.
At the annual main
Drumcree parade yesterday, Darryl Hewitt, the Grand Master of Portadown District LOL (Loyal Orange Order) No 1, accused the commission of “pandering to a hard-line republican agenda”. He challenged Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire to dismiss the commission members.
“They must go, and the call from this place this afternoon is that the Secretary of State must show some mettle, and once and for all sack the whole lot of them,” he said.
“However, we attempt to complete our parade each and every Sunday – a fact that most people in Northern Ireland are not aware of. No-one should be in any doubt, Portadown District are in this for the long haul. We will not be deflected from seeking to achieve our objective.”