Drumcree? Again?

When the Drumcree dispute erupted over parades down the Garvaghy Road, most observers already believed that N. Ireland was on the road towards peace. John Hume and Gerry Adams had been involved in the Hume-Adams talks, which had been publicly discussed since April 1993, causing much anger and upset within unionism but eventually leading to the IRA ceasefire in 1994

Rather than being delighted by the end of the IRA terrorist campaign, many conservative unionists were disturbed that the old certainties were crumbling. Famously the leader of the Ulster Unionists, James Molyneaux, described the IRA ceasefire as one of the most “destabilising events since partition.”

In 1995 the Garvaghy residents held a sit-down protest, but eventually the march was allowed to proceed. It was celebrated by a triumphant Paisley and Trimble. It should also be remembered that Drumcree 1995 was where a fresh-faced Jeffrey Donaldson came to prominence, giving high profile media interviews and attacking the residents of the Garvaghy Road for being intolerant. He was selected as a replacement candidate in Jim Molyneaux’s Lagan Valley constituency the following year.

In 1996 the standoff was much worse, lasting from 5–11 July with rioting across much of N. Ireland. On the night of 7 July, Catholic taxi-driver Michael McGoldrick was killed in a murder associated with Billy Wright of the LVF. During this time Wright was frequently seen at Drumcree in the company of Harold Gracey, head of the Portadown Orange Lodge, with Gracey thanking Wright for his role in supporting the Orangemen. At this time the law governing parade decisions was the Public Order (NI) Order of 1987, which allowed the RUC to ban or reroute parades based on the effect on public peace. (Unfortunately, this legislation had the unintended effect of forcing police to respond primarily based on which side would cause most damage if they did not get their way.) A decision was taken to allow the Drumcree Parade to continue

In 1997, Mo Mowlam made a decision that the parade would be allowed and a sit-down protest was forcibly removed.

In 1998, Northern Ireland had voted in May to overwhelmingly to accept the Good Friday Agreement (71.1%) and decades of violence were over, or so we thought. A Parades Commission had been set up to rule on contentious parades and decided to ban the Drumcree Parade. On Sunday 5^th July the Orangemen marched to Drumcree Church and stated they would remain there until they were allowed to proceed down the Garvaghy Road. Thousands of unionist protestors began to gather and as expected, loyalist violence broke out across N. Ireland.

On Sunday 12 July, loyalists threw a petrol bomb through the window of a house in Ballymoney. Inside were three young children – Jason (aged 8), Mark (aged 9) and Richard Quinn (aged 10) – all were killed.

The Orange Order has not paraded down the Garvaghy Road since that time, but has continued to protest about the Garvaghy Road march and about other marches in Belfast.

Why Does the Orange Order want to Reopen This?

In theory, the Orange Order is a Christian (Protestant) organisation but much of its behaviour around Drumcree seems the complete opposite. Partly, this is because they fear that Republicans have outmanoeuvred them over parading – one Loyalist commentator is fond of saying “Unionism must give and Nationalism must get”, and the instinctive reaction is that we must halt the slide and stop giving in to nationalists.

Unionism has long had a conservative culture of opposing change; we closed the gates at Derry, our slogans are ‘Stand Firm’, ‘No Surrender’, ‘Not an Inch’ and ‘Ulster Says No’. When the singer Cher sang “If I Could Turn Back Time”, it could have been our theme tune.

Laughably, one Loyalist commentator in a recent book declared that ‘Drumcree is seared on the soul of every unionist’ and appears to suggest that we need to go on an endless ‘culture war’ with Irish nationalists.

As someone who was teaching in a secondary school during the Drumcree years, I thought it was a poisonous dispute that was damaging to unionism and was leading our children into the arms of the paramilitaries. Some of the Portadown Orangemen were so caught up in their own bitterness and anger that they were indifferent to complaints about this. On 7^th July 2000, Harold Gracey of the Orange Order refused to condemn the violence linked to the Drumcree protests, saying “Gerry Adams doesn’t condemn violence, so I’ll not”.

What would Jesus do?

The Orange Order tell us they are a Christian organisation and so it is reasonable to ask them, ‘What would Jesus do?’

Personally, I believe that when Michael McGoldrick was shot dead to force a Drumcree Parade, the Christian thing for the Orange Order to have done would have been to walk away from that dispute. When the Quinn children were murdered the Orange Order should have turned away in disgust.

I don’t believe there will ever be an Orange Parade down the Garvaghy Road. The sensible thing for the Orange Order to do if they eventually get permission, is to apologise to all those who suffered during the Drumcree years and to voluntarily give up this route.