Sinn Féin has called on the Parades Commission to reject a proposed Orange Order march along Portadown’s Garvaghy Road this weekend, insisting residents “must not be dragged back into a dispute that belongs in the past”.
Upper Bann MLA John O’Dowd, along with Sinn Féin councillors Paul Duffy, Clare McConville-Walker and Catherine Nelson, has lodged formal objections with both the Parades Commission and the PSNI over the notification for what organisers have styled the “Drumcree Civil and Religious Liberty Memorial Walk”.
The fresh application, submitted by the Orange Order, seeks permission for a small early‑morning procession of 10 Orangemen to leave Drumcree Parish Church on Sunday and walk the full length of the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road to the Parkmount area. It would be separate from the main Drumcree church parade later that day.
Mr O’Dowd said the renewed attempt to march on the Garvaghy Road runs contrary to the settled wishes of the local community.
“The Drumcree dispute belongs in the past. Twenty-eight years after the Good Friday Agreement, residents should not have to face renewed uncertainty over an issue they have consistently rejected,” he said.
“Sinn Féin has submitted its objections to the Parades Commission, and I have been engaging with senior PSNI officials.
“The voices of the Garvaghy Road community must come first.”
Councillor Paul Duffy said residents had enjoyed nearly three decades of relative calm and were united in opposing any return to the contentious stretch of road.
“The people of the Garvaghy Road have lived peacefully for 28 years and deserve to continue doing so. This application is an unnecessary attempt to reopen old divisions,” he said.
“There is no support within the local community for this parade.
“The Parades Commission must listen to local residents and refuse this application.”
The commission is expected to rule on the new notification on Friday, after considering submissions from the Orange Order, residents’ representatives, political parties and other interested groups.
It comes less than a week after the Parades Commission again barred Portadown District LOL No 1 from marching along the Garvaghy Road as part of this year’s main Drumcree church parade, due to take place on Sunday, July 5, 2026.
In a detailed determination published last week, the Commission maintained the core restrictions first imposed in 1998 at the height of the Drumcree stand‑off. The outward parade has been ordered to avoid Obins Street and Corcrain/Charles Street and instead follow an alternative route via West Street, Northway and Corcrain Road. The return leg is prohibited from entering any part of the Garvaghy Road and must either retrace the alternative route or disperse at Drumcree Church no later than 2.30pm.
The Commission said that, while community relations in Portadown are “greatly improved” and no specific intelligence has been received indicating likely disorder, allowing the parade to return to the Garvaghy Road “would have a negative impact on community relations and would cause significant disruption to the life of the community”.
It stressed it “cannot ignore the terrible events of the past” associated with the dispute, which in the late 1990s saw serious violence, deaths and injuries both locally and further afield.
In its submissions, Portadown District LOL No 1 argued that being blocked from completing the traditional Drumcree route since 1998 is an unjustified infringement of its civil and religious liberties, and has urged what it describes as a more “consistent and fair” approach to parade restrictions.
Residents’ representatives, by contrast, told the Commission that any parade on the Garvaghy Road or Obins Street would have “adverse effects” and warned that reopening the issue now would be like “picking a scab” for those who lived through the earlier confrontations.
With a decision on the latest Garvaghy Road application due today (Friday), Sinn Féin and local residents are pressing the Commission to hold the line on restrictions and to prioritise what they describe as the hard‑won peace and stability of the area.
