Political Rituals: Loyalist Parades in Portadown

Author(s): Dominic Bryan, T.G. Frazer and Seamus Dunn
Document Type: Report
Year: 1995
Publisher: Centre for the Study of Conflict, University of Ulster
Place of Publication: Coleraine
ISBN: 1 85923 002 4
Subject Area(s): Community, Culture/Identity, NI Conflict, Religion
Client Group(s) : Families, Men, Paramilitaries, Women, Young People

Abbreviations: DUP - Democratic Unionist Party, NI - Northern Ireland, SDLP - Social Democratic & Labour Party, UUP - Ulster Unionist Party

Background to the Research

  • Parades are a predominant feature of life in NI and, during 1985/86 in Portadown, 'the right to march' sparked a series of riots and incidents that had major repercussions for the local Protestant and Catholic communities, the relationship between the police and the local community, and for NI as a whole. This report explores the nature of the local conflict concerning parades in Portadown and sets it in its broader historical and political context.

Research Approach

  • In order to examine the issues, the authors drew on newspapers, publications by the Orange Order, the Drumcree Faith and Justice Group and paramilitary organisations. A small number of informal interviews were carried out with some of the interested parties.

Main Findings

Portadown and its Orange Tradition

  • Portadown has a population of 30,000, the town is relatively prosperous with lower levels of unemployment than the adjoining areas of Lurgan and Craigavon. Around 30% of the population is Catholic and attempts to have integrated housing estates in the area have failed.
  • Obins Street (part of which is known as the Tunnel) and the housing estates of Ballyoran and Churchill Park - areas that lie adjacent to the town centre - are predominantly Catholic. The loyalist Park estate is situated between Churchill Park and the town centre.
  • The origins of Portadown are found in the plantation, stories of the massacre of Protestants in Portadown in 1641 are commemorated. The town is sited near to where the Orange Order was founded. There are 3 Orange Halls within the Portadown area and 3 parades and their bands have regularly marched through the tunnel area, down Obins Street to Drumcree Church and returned via the Garvaghy Road. Conflict with regard to parades in Portadown goes back to at least the late 19th century.

Portadown 1985/1986

  • Increased tension and violence surrounding parades in Portadown during the mid-1980s needs to be set in the wider social and political context. After the hunger strikes in the early 1980s support for Sinn Fein grew, whilst support for the SDLP began to diminish. The signing of the Anglo-Irish Agreement in the mid-1980s increased unease amongst unionists. The NI Assembly established in 1982 had few powers and was periodically boycotted by the SDLP and the UUP. Unemployment in the province was high and the economy faltering.
  • Parades in Portadown during 1985/6 were characterised by a determination by Orangemen to parade along their traditional routes and protests by local nationalists to those parades that encroached on their areas. The police intervened at various parades to quell riots and attempted to either permit marching taking a stated route or to re-route parades. Local disputes concerning parades attracted protesters from outside the area and influenced the instigation of disputes in other areas.
  • The parades issues rose steadily up the political agenda and became an important topic in discussion between the various NI political parties and the British and Irish governments. Politicians on both sides contended that there was political interference in the policing of parades and sought to use the parades issues in a variety of ways to bolster their political agenda. In relation to nationalists and Unionists, parades became a focal point for wider grievances concerning the nature of the NI state and their relationship with that state.
  • 'Blood and thunder bands' provided an outlet for young (frequently unemployed) Protestants who felt alienated from the political process and from traditionalists within the Orange Order. The police became increasingly concerned with the role of the 'blood and thunder' bands, especially when officials of the loyal institutions appeared not to be able to exercise a degree of control over the members of such bands.
  • The response of the mainstream political parties in relation to parades is complex. Broadly speaking the UUP, with its institutional links to the Orange Institution and which drew much of its political support from members of the Orange lodgers, was opposed to re-routing but respectful of the role of the police. The DUP were more likely to draw their support from members of the blood and thunder bands and were also opposed to re-routing but were critical of the role of the government and the police.
  • Parades became the focal point of discontent concerning the perception that policies in NI were being decided by the London and Dublin governments rather than in NI. In this context, parades were not re-enactment's of events in the past, rather they were dynamic processes used as a cultural resource and indicated economic, political and cultural change.
  • Residents in nationalist areas view parades as triumphalist and threatening, where Orangemen see the re-routing of parades as a attack on Protestantism itself. Whilst Twelfth parades have changed over time, without a broader political resolution, it seems unlikely that any compromise can be reached between nationalists and unionists in relation to this issue.
 

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