Thousands back Orange Order in Portadown after ban on Garvaghy Road parade

Parade through Portadown

On Saturday, 24 October, several hundred members of the Orange Order walked through the centre of Portadown in County Armagh, accompanied by bands and supporters. The BBC reported that thousands of people turned out to back the order, while RTE and The Telegraph put the marchers at several thousand, so the reports differ on how many took part in the procession. The march kept clear of Garvaghy Road, the mainly nationalist street at the centre of the dispute. According to the Evening Standard, crowds lined the streets on Saturday night for a parade held in support of the Portadown District Lodge, which had been blocked from using the road.

Why the march was banned

The dispute reaches back to the 1990s, when police stopped the Orange Order from walking Garvaghy Road in July 1995. The 1997 march was the last to pass along the route, and a ban followed in 1998, the year the Parades Commission began operating. On 27 September the commission permitted 35 Orangemen to walk the route silently, with no bands and no supporters, the first permission for the road in 28 years. Residents and backers in their thousands stopped the procession, and a standoff lasting almost two weeks followed. On 9 October Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant banned the parade, acting on advice from PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher, who had asked him to review the commission's approval.

Court challenges

Members of the Orange Order are seeking a judicial review of Bryant's decision, and their case was delayed on Monday, 19 October, after Boutcher was added to it. The same day, the Court of Appeal rejected a challenge by Garvaghy Road residents to the commission's decision allowing the 27 September parade, though the judges said their ruling covered only whether that decision was lawful and not whether the march should take place. The Orange Order's two-day challenge in Belfast ended on Tuesday, 20 October, and a High Court ruling is expected. Residents had kept a constant presence on the road until the ban on 9 October.

Political fallout

At a rally after the parade, Upper Bann DUP MP Carla Lockhart, who led the march alongside loyalist activist Jamie Bryson, said she was lost for words for the first time in her life, and then addressed the crowd.

“Walk tall, walk proud, keep the faith, and keep fighting for this wee province.”

Lockhart resigned as a DUP party officer in October in a dispute with party leader Gavin Robinson over whether to withdraw deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly from the powersharing executive. She argued that removing Little-Pengelly would automatically remove Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O'Neill from the joint office the two hold. Closing her speech, Lockhart said:

“Michelle O'Neill must go.”

O'Neill and Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald took part in the blockade of Garvaghy Road, a protest the Evening Standard describes as allegedly unlawful, and both have been interviewed by police investigating their role. Boos rose from the crowd whenever O'Neill's name was mentioned, and chants called for the first minister to step down.