Orange Order announces plan for ‘limited’ Drumcree Parade

The Orange Order has announced that it has made an application for a “limited” parade along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown.

During a press conference in the Co Armagh town, they said 60 members would take part in the proposed Drumcree parade on Sunday, September 27.

However, District Master Nigel Dawson also said that current members of the Parades Commission have “no credibility” to adjudicate on their application and should resign.

Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart (DUP) said the move was about “righting a wrong that has been inflicted on Portadown District for the past 28 years”.

The commission, which adjudicates on contentious parades in Northern Ireland, was heavily criticised by unionist politicians and the Orange Order after the ruling last month which quashed its most recent determination over the Drumcree parade in Portadown.

Representatives of the three unionist parties including Ms Lockhart, TUV leader Jim Allister and UUP councillor Kyle Savage sat with the leaders of the Portadown District of the Orange Order during the press conference at Carleton Hall on Thursday.

However Sinn Féin vice president Michelle O’Neill made her opposition clear in a post on social media, saying: “The days of unwanted marches being imposed on the Garvaghy Road community are over.

“The people of this small community should be left to live in peace, free from fear and intimidation.

“Sinn Féin stands fully with the people of Garvaghy Road.”

High Court Judge Mr Justice McAlinden referred to “errors”, “short cuts”, and “sloppy procedures” in the approach of the commission to making its determination.

The Parades Commission has blocked the order from marching along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown in July every year since 1998.

Unionist politicians have called for the resignation of the commissioners, including chairwoman Professor Evelyn Collins, after the ruling.

One commissioner, Billy Gamble, who had attracted criticism, has resigned but the chairwoman has remained in post.

Secretary of State Sir Chris Bryant has ordered a judge-led review into how the Parades Commission makes its decisions.

At the press conference Mr Dawson said the commission “has no credibility”.

“Portadown District has today lodged a notification to complete our return church parade, which we have been unlawfully and unjustly denied since 1998, and to bring our bannerette home to Carleton Street Orange Hall, for the first time in just under 30 years,” he said.

“This notification has been accompanied by a detailed legal submission, which begins by setting out our clear and unequivocal position that all commissioners who took part in the unlawful and both procedurally and substantively termination for the 5th of July 2026 are infected by public law bias and predetermination, and accordingly, they cannot play any role in considering this notification.

“That this commission remains in office, particularly the chair, is an affront to good public administration and undermines the authority of the Secretary of State, who has shown himself impotent in the face of belligerent and arrogant commission.

“Let us be very clear: they have no credibility, they have no legitimacy, and they have no lawful right to play any role in this determination.”

He said there was no threat of violence or disruption from “any section of our community” regardless of the outcome of the application.

Deputy District Master Alistair Power said the proposed march would take place on September 27 and would include 60 people marching along the Garvaghy Road wearing collarettes with no music.

He said: “This limited parade is proportionate, inoffensive and wholly reasonable.”

The stand-off at Drumcree made headlines in the 1990s, with nationalist residents of the Garvaghy Road resolutely opposed to the parade passing through the area, leading to violent clashes for several summers and political tension necessitating a major security operation.

The Orange Order has unsuccessfully applied for more than a quarter of a century to complete its 1998 walk along its traditional route.

Ms Lockhart said the rights of the Orange men have been denied by the commission.

“This is a significant day, it is about healing a wound that has run deep, and it is about being accommodating, it is about being proportionate, it is about saying to the residents of the Garvaghy Road that we want to be proportionate and reasonable in our request.

“I can assure you that you are dealing with very reasonable individuals at this table,” she said.

“For the past 28 years, 52 weeks of the year, they have stood dignified, they have sought to have their protest on Drumcree hill week on week in a dignified and peaceful way.

“Today is a big day, and I’m asking that the Parades Commission apply the law to this notification, and if the law is applied, I see no reason as to why 60 men with no bands, no drum beat, with a simple collarette, cannot walk down a road that has been walked from 1807.”

Mr Allister hailed an “equitable way forward to bring their banner home”.

“This is about righting an historic wrong, it is quite unbelievable that for three decades the legitimate right to complete a church parade by the local district has been frustrated and prevented,” he said.

“Yet with great tenacity, with great patience and total peacefulness, the district has maintained their presence and now come to the point where they’re taking a position as an equitable way forward to bring their banner home, and I think that by any standard is a rational and reasonable request.

“The district has done the right thing, and they have my support in what they are proffering.”