Peaceful protest as PSNI stop Drumcree church parade after Parades Commission determination

Local Orange leaders had suggested last week that Sunday would have been the ideal time to allow the 1998 parade to be completed as it would coincide with Armagh playing in the All-Ireland gaelic football final, with the majority of the Garvaghy Road community either "away to Croke Park" or watching the game on TV.

However, in a determination issued on Thursday, the Parades Commission once again said the parade would be banned from entering the Garvaghy Road on its proposed route back to Carleton Street Orange Hall.

The parade proposal had been backed by the DUP Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart who said: “A 10-minute church parade should be offensive to no one and especially given the circumstances in which this application has been made.”

There was serious public disorder in Portadown, and across Northern Ireland, in July 1995 in response to the parade being banned from the Garvaghy Road for the first time, and further disorder connected to the parade anniversary for several consecutive years.

Sunday’s event passed without incident as PSNI officers enforced the Parades Commission’s determination. Portadown District master Nigel Dawson said last week the the repeated refusal of the Garvaghy Road residents to engage with local Orange representatives, and the “veto” they are being facilitated to exercise “is unsustainable moving forward”.