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drumcree
20 minutes' walk separates Drumcree and Garvaghy Rd; both sides are digging in for the long haul
Come midday, hundreds were gathered on the Garvaghy Road, with a marquee providing food and drink.
LAST UPDATE | 2 hrs ago
AT AROUND 9.30 this morning on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, you wouldn’t have imagined that anything noteworthy had taken place the day before.
A few deck chairs were lying out, as were a few black bin bags full of rubbish which had been collected, but nothing was out of the ordinary other than that.
But come 12pm, a marquee was erected and people were bringing food and drink ahead of another day of protest against a contentious Orange Order parade.
Food being delivered to the Garvaghy Road @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/fEccnj4G5y
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) September 28, 2026
At the height of the blockade yesterday, thousands of people gathered on the road to prevent the parade from the nearby Drumcree Church from passing along the route.
The mass gathering, which was illegal under parading legislation in the North, involved senior Sinn Féin politicians, including Stormont’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill.
Meanwhile, over at Drumcree Church around 15 people stood outside, with a modest PSNI presence parked at the foot of the hill on which the church stands.
On a few occasions, they marched down to the police, demanding to know why the parade couldn’t proceed.
More from Jamie Bryson at the bottom of the hill @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/3kcAdx062c
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) September 28, 2026
“Are you ready to police the determination,” said Jamie Bryson, who described himself as the legal adviser for Portadown District Lodge.
During the stand-off, several cars were turned away as the Orange Order and police faced off.
A PSNI officer at the scene told The Journal that while the road remains open as normal, traffic briefly has to be halted while an attempt is made to start the march.
“Let her sit there,” says one Member of the Orange Order, as another car comes along. @thejournal_ie pic.twitter.com/EH1RwgAjvI
— Diarmuid Pepper (@Diarmuid_9) September 28, 2026
Speaking to The Journal, Bryson said he “expects the PSNI to uphold and apply the law, which is that the Portadown District is facilitated with a legal entitlement”.
“Either Portadown District goes down the road,” said Bryson, “or the Executive must come down.”
When it was put to Bryson if this really is an issue worth bringing Stormont down over, Bryson replied: “Either the law applies or it doesn’t. It’s the law or the mob.”
He added: “There can only be one winner here, the law has resolved this issue.”
Bryson was involved in deep discussions with the DUP’s Carla Lockhart at Drumcree Church.
“We cannot have a situation where those who are acting unlawfully win over those who have acted lawfully and impeccably over the last 28 years,” Lockhart told The Journal.
She also called for “serious consequences” for Michelle O’Neill for her role in the protests.
“If it was the deputy first minister [DUP MLA Emma Little-Pengelly) was doing something like that, there would be consequences as well,” she added.
Lockhart echoed Bryson’s sentiment that “the mob can’t win”.
Upon a 10-minute walk back towards the Garvaghy Road, a man and his son could be seen outside with their binoculars, monitoring the situation at Drumcree Church – they declined to speak and claimed that they couldn’t be pictured or named.
Back on the Garvaghy Road, Sinn Féin MP John Finucane told The Journal that the “lived memory, trauma and wounds run very, very deep in this community”.
“Nobody is preventing the Orange Order from going to a church service,” said Finucane.
“Nobody is denying them the freedom to assemble. What this community will not accept, is an attempt to go back to the days when a supremacist march comes through here.”
Finucane said he’s had “messages of support from all over the world” and added: “We cannot go back to those days. Not today, not ever.”
He continued: “People had loved ones murdered, 21 people were murdered because of the Drumcree dispute, three children were burned to death in their own house.
“A solicitor was blown up, taxi drivers were shot dead, police officers were killed. This is what we are talking about.
“That leaves an incredibly deep scar and wound.
“All of that stays with people, and there is a generation who remember and lived that.
“But more importantly, there’s a generation who haven’t, and that is what we are trying to work towards, ensuring that that generation never has to witness those days again.”
Local Sinn Féin councillor Paul Duffy meanwhile was full of praise for O’Neill’s supposed law-breaking.
“If you want to put Michelle O’Neill in the same frame as Rosa Parks, I would say Michelle O’Neill would be delighted,” Duffy told The Journal.
“Standing up for injustice is what the first minister is supposed to be there for.”
Meanwhile, Duffy thanked nationalists from across Ireland for turning up on the Garvaghy Road yesterday.
“Greatly appreciated, and their help was more than welcome.
“And certainly, if they need the people of the Garvaghy Road to go to an area for an issue, we’ll certainly go and stand with them.”
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