‘We’re not going back, are we?’: Courts may be the only way to end Drumcree standoff
Claire Hanna, the SDLP leader, was in Dunnes Stores in the Annadale shopping centre off the Ormeau Road in Belfast on Friday afternoon when she was approached by an anxious couple. “He was, like, ‘God, we’re not going back. We’re not going back, are we?’,” she says, referring to the danger of the Ormeau Bridge parade riots of the 1990s and 2000s happening again. Drumcree 2026, however, is not the same as the 1990s. Thankfully, it has not witnessed violence, and Portadown has mostly gone about its business quietly over the last week, free of disturbance. However, Hanna’s quick conversation in the aisle reflects conversations across Northern Ireland over the last week in the wake of Drumcree erupting again after nearly 30 years dormant. Garvaghy Road’s residents return on Monday to the Court of Appeal to challenge last week’s block on their bid to have the Parades Commission ’s original Drumcree march permission reviewed. For now, there are lots of “ifs”. If the courts rule that a judicial review is now warranted, and if the Orange ’s permit is judged to have lapsed, then the matter must go back to the commission for a new ruling. Despite confusion about what the Police Service of Northern Ireland ( PSNI ) told the commission the first time, it is hard to believe it would say now a parade can peacefully take march. However, it could rule that the permission is still valid, heightening the pressure on the PSNI to clear the way – even though Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has already made his disapproval clear. Drumcree is both unique and not. Its history, the violence and bitterness that surrounded it during the 1990s, and before, gives it the primary place in Northern Ireland’s list of flashpoints. However, it is but one of 3,813 parades notified to the Parades Commission in the year to March 31st– 2,507 of them are Protestant/unionist/loyalist; 96 are Catholic/nationalist/republican; 171 are sensitive; 141 have conditions imposed. Taoiseach questions Sinn Féin ‘sincerity’ over Garvaghy Road situation The concern now, not just for those living near the Ormeau Bridge but elsewhere too, is that hard-won local compromises will fray if Drumcree intensifies – or even that the damage is already done. But it is not just about parades. For many, the crisis has awoken sectarian hatred that had drifted into the background, but not disappeared. Standing outside Garvaghy’s local Catholic Church on Thursday night, resident Paul Larkin talked of how Portadown has changed in the last 10 years or so, with Catholics now broadly comfortable in town. Broadly comfortable, but not entirely so: “You’d still have that little bit of fear. They’re not happy with us mingling in around the town in GAA tops. But before, if you went into the town in one, you’d have got the shit kicked out of you.” Larkin is comfortable leaving the past in the past: “Children today don’t know anything about this, shouldn’t know anything about this.” The danger is that the poison released by Drumcree’s latest chapter will seep into broader society’s bloodstream. “I have a niece, a curious 10-year-old, never knew anything about the Troubles,” said one local. “She’s actually turned bitter. She wouldn’t have known anything about Orangemen, or anything like that. For the first time today, I heard her actually saying ‘Orange bastards’.” Frankly, a solution is now likely only from the courts, since the binary “march, or no march” choice facing politicians is one from which most of them will not vary their oft-repeated stand. Watching Sinn Féin on Garvaghy Road in the last week has been instructive: locals elect Sinn Féin representatives, yet they follow local residents’ leader, Breandán Mac Cionnaith’s lead. The former jailed IRA bomber is not a Sinn Féin member, having quit the party 20 years ago over its decision to support the police. Since then, he has been a leading member of the politically dissident Éirígí. Breandán Mac Cionnaith profile: The ex-IRA man who Tony Blair said ‘took unreasonableness to an art form’ His local influence leaves Sinn Féin walking on eggshells, but that is a price worth paying because Drumcree is a political gift for the party in advance of next May’s Stormont elections. Sinn Féin has been in difficulties – its Stormont accomplishments few, its polling figures rocky. However, Drumcree has galvanised broader nationalist opinion – not just people who once supported the IRA, even if they do not want violence on the streets. The danger, perhaps, is over-confidence. Having thousands on Garvaghy Road over the weekend’s rally, or a widely circulated social media video of “My Old Man’s A Provo” from Thursday night, contrasts with Taoiseach Micheál Martin’s urging to “dial it down”. Relations between Sinn Féin and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) are poisonous. Neither is truly invested in making the Stormont Executive work, yet would prefer if the other was blamed for collapsing the institutions. On Friday, DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, clearly displayed his concern that matters could go over the edge, saying “too many people have acted in a deeply reckless way”. For the DUP, a successful march a week ago could have done much to defend its right flank from the predations of Jim Allister and the Traditional Unionist Voice in the coming elections. The south sees Drumcree and thinks: we don’t want that sectarian mindset down here Today, however, the still-blocked march poses higher hurdles for Robinson, especially since so many of his own people, such as local Portadown MP, Carla Lockhart, are less invested in Stormont’s survival than he is. In the meantime, the hope of a Hillsborough talks genie is unlikely, especially since there are grumbles that Secretary of State Chris Bryant, newly in office, has yet to understand local politics’ grim realities. “Pollyanna-ish, at times,” said one observer.