Sir, – The events surrounding the Drumcree parade dispute reveal a wider conflict between the assertion of marching rights and the lasting harm experienced by families and communities along the Garvaghy Road.
Following the murder of Jason (9), Mark (10) and Richard (11) Quinn by the Ulster Volunteer Force in July 1998, the Orange Order’s Grand Chaplain for County Armagh, Reverend William Bingham, observed: “ ... a walk down the Garvaghy Road by the Orange Order would be a very hollow victory because it would be in the shadow of three coffins of little boys who wouldn’t even know what the Orange Order is about”.
In the shadow of these murders, the Orange Order’s Portadown District did not step back to allow a family and a community to grieve. Instead, they submitted notifications every week to the Parades Commission to complete the unfinished part of their march and continued to do so for the years thereafter.
What makes these actions even more reprehensible is the district’s stated belief that their marching route is set in tablets of stone, despite their agreement to alternative marching routes both before and after 1998. For example, from 1986 the march was routed away from Obins Street with Orange Order leaders agreeing to the change at that time.
RM Block
Parades Commission figures show there were 2,507 Protestant, unionist and loyalist marches throughout the North from April 1st, 2025, to March 2026. That figure alone makes it demonstrably clear that the traditions of this community are being accommodated as a matter of course.
After nearly three decades, the question is no longer about the route itself, but why marching down the Garvaghy Road continues to be pursued by the Orange Order, and that is the most uncomfortable of all questions for unionism. – Yours, etc,
SINÉAD MÁIRE NÍ BHROIN,
Buncrana,
Co Donegal.
Sir, – How can we be back here again? Surely all sides could predict what would happen if the marchers were to be given the opportunity to parade through Garvaghy Road.
Now that the law appears to be on their side, the marchers are emboldened despite the obvious distress caused to the residents.
A resolution seems unlikely in the current situation. My suggestion is to take a huge breath, let them have their moment of triumphalism with one more condition. They must agree that this is the last one. Let them have their parade, provided they are committed to never again marching down this road. – Yours, etc,
LEONARD HOGAN,
Sutton,
Dublin 13.
