DUP MP Says Drumcree Resolution Paper ‘Not Acceptable’ as Talks Continue
PORTADOWN, Northern Ireland — A proposed resolution document intended to break the Drumcree parading deadlock is “not acceptable,” DUP MP Carla Lockhart said Wednesday, even as the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition signaled it could support an agreement if the Orange Order does.
The comments underscored how quickly the dispute has moved from the courts to negotiations — and how fragile those negotiations remain. The standoff centers on whether the Portadown Orange Order can complete a parade along the Garvaghy Road, a mainly nationalist area it has been barred from marching down for decades.
Breandán Mac Cionnaith, speaking after hours of discussions with government officials at Hillsborough Castle, said the residents’ group had “received a document from the secretary of state.” He declined to reveal its contents but added: “Let’s say if it’s accepted by the Orange Order, it’ll be accepted by us.”
His remarks followed a meeting with residents in the Garvaghy Road area and came after lawyers for the GRRC launched a fresh legal bid Tuesday to stop the march. Talks with Secretary of State Sir Chris Bryant took place Wednesday.
Lockhart, the Upper Bann MP, was not part of those talks. Addressing a loyalist rally in Portadown in support of the Drumcree Orangemen, she said supporters would not accept any deal that amounted to walking away from the right to parade down the Garvaghy Road.
“We are more determined than ever to ensure that the Portadown District walk down the Garvaghy Road, and I can tell you now, there’ll be no capitulation on the part of the Portadown district,” Lockhart said, according to the Press Association. “They will not accept a deal where they walk away. They have the legal right to walk on the Garvaghy Road, and it’s time for Jon Boutcher to get on and do his job and police the lawful determination.”
Boutcher, the PSNI chief constable, met Mac Cionnaith on Wednesday evening. Mac Cionnaith said he shared his group’s position with the chief constable and received Boutcher’s in return. “He, like ourselves, is aware that there is a process under way at Hillsborough, and he is not going to do anything to jeopardise that process either, like ourselves,” he said.
Mac Cionnaith declined to discuss the contents of the proposals, saying he did not want to jeopardize the talks by speaking publicly. “It is on the table at the moment. I am not going to do anything to jeopardise that by speaking publicly on it,” he said. “There is another day’s process to go here. I am not going to jeopardise anything by breaking that confidentiality.” He described the document as a “discussion document” and said “there will be discussions around it.”
The Orange Order is still waiting to begin its permitted parade, which had been due to take place Sunday and would take marchers down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown. The march was given the go-ahead after three separate legal hearings over 13 hours late Saturday and into early Sunday morning.
On Tuesday, a spokesperson for the residents told supporters mediation was “dead in the water.” By Wednesday, Bryant struck a more hopeful note, saying the process was “very much alive” and that “we need to wish for a good successful outcome here.”
Representatives from the GRRC and the Portadown Orange Order took part in Wednesday’s talks, waiting in separate rooms beforehand. Bryant said all participants had been “very frank with each other, open and honest,” which he believed was the best way to reach a “successful resolution.”
Senior Orange Order members, including Portadown District Master Nigel Dawson and Deputy District Master Alastair Power, were in the group that met the secretary of state. They were accompanied by loyalist activist Jamie Bryson, who has acted as an adviser to the lodge.
After the meeting, Dawson said the secretary of state had been left “in no doubt” that the Orange Order’s position remained that he and the chief constable must apply the law to allow the march to take place. The group later returned and stayed for about an hour around 5 p.m. BST, but Dawson declined to comment on the paper.
Bryson was asked what had happened. He said he did not want to speak for the Orange Order but added: “If the law is not applied, how can the executive possibly survive?” It is understood Bryson has not been part of the discussions with Bryant and has been waiting in a separate room.
GRRC members, including Mac Cionnaith, arrived at Hillsborough Castle on Wednesday morning. He emerged about seven hours after meeting the secretary of state and said the residents’ group had been presented with a document. “Obviously I can’t divulge what is in it, but if it’s accepted by the Orange Order, it will be accepted by us,” he said.
Outside the talks, the standoff remained visible. A police Land Rover stayed near Drumcree Church on Wednesday morning. Dozens of protesters remained on the Garvaghy Road, where residents Paul and Charlie told BBC News NI they had camped out for nearly 24 hours. They said they were relieved to see the sun after “wild” overnight weather battered the protest site with wind and rain.
Members of the Orange Order left Drumcree Church overnight — the first time since the standoff began. They are understood to have left for health and safety reasons because of the adverse weather. A small crowd returned in the morning and continued to wait for news from Hillsborough. About 200 protesters gathered Wednesday afternoon, according to the BBC.
Meanwhile, Dawson told hundreds of supporters at an outdoor rally in Portadown that unionist leaders needed to keep pressure on the secretary of state and the chief constable and that the law must be “respected and applied.”
“Tonight, my position, our position, is very, very clear. The chief constable, who is responsible for ensuring the law is complied with in this country, must apply the law,” he said. Sinn Féin has called on the Irish government to intervene in the dispute.
The Drumcree dispute is one of the most sensitive parading flashpoints in Northern Ireland. The Orange Order, the most prominent of the loyal orders associated with Protestants in Northern Ireland, holds thousands of parades each year, and the vast majority pass off without incident. But many Catholics view the marches as sectarian and object to them passing through or close to Catholic or nationalist areas.
The Garvaghy Road had been part of the Drumcree route, but by the mid-1990s nationalist residents were protesting against the parade. The row sparked some of the most serious public disorder in Northern Ireland’s history and was linked to several murders.
During the 1990s, standoffs over attempts by the Orange Order to march along the Garvaghy Road were accompanied by riots, roadblocks and killings. When police prevented the Orange Order from walking the route in July 1995, there was a tense standoff. The same pattern followed for the next three years. Violence related to the dispute resulted in riots, roadblocks and murders across Northern Ireland.
In 1998, the newly established Parades Commission ruled that the Orange Order should not march down the road — a decision upheld for the last 28 years.
The row reemerged last month after a court case overturned a Parades Commission ruling, and a fresh application was lodged. On Friday, the commission decided the march could go ahead with restrictions in place. That decision was challenged in several Belfast courts on Saturday before the parade was finally given the go-ahead just hours before it was due to take place.
The latest talks at Hillsborough Castle are now seen as a pivotal moment: a deal could ease one of Northern Ireland’s oldest parading disputes, while a collapse could deepen tensions around the march and the wider question of how policing and political authority handle contested parades. As one participant described the process, there is “another day’s process to go.”