The Garvaghy Road community has been assured that a court ruling quashing this year’s Parades Commission determination does not mean the Orange Order will be able to hold their infamously incendiary Drumcree parade through the nationalist area of Portadown.
A ruling was based on procedural reasons after the Parades Commission, which adjudicates on contentious parade, conceded failings in regard to their process for arriving at their ruling last year.
The brutal violence used by the RUC police to force anti-Catholic Orange Order parades through the nationalist enclave of the Garvaghy Road became some of the most shocking scenes of the 1990s in the north of Ireland (pictured, below).
The Parades Commission was set up as a direct result of the violence, and it has continued to make determinations on sectarian parades and parade routes across the North ever since. The commission’s rulings on the Drumcree parade have remained effectively unchanged for the past 28 years – rerouting the coat-trailing parades away from the nationalist area and down an alternative route.
This week’s court ruling did not determine that the infamously incendiary parade would be allowed. Despite public concern, any future Orange march along the Garvaghy Road will still require a fresh application and a new decision by the Commission.
That distinction has been lost amid an extraordinary display of triumphalism by political unionism and loyalism, with the court outcome hailed as a “seismic”, “totemic” and “historic and unprecedented victory”.
Among those who are most concerned are the Garvaghy Road residents, who are fearful of unionists and Orangemen once again playing politics with their district.
Breandán Mac Cionnaith, of the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition, (pictured, left) countered efforts by unionists to reignite parading tensions in Portadown. He said the British government “have to come out strongly”.
“Out of all the solutions there has been over the years about marches the Parades Commission has proved to be effective,” he said.
“On one occasion it has been shown to make a procedural error, not a judgment error. There’s a clear distinction.”
The 1998 Good Friday Agreement recognised the right to live free from sectarian harassment and intimidation, but unionist politicians (pictured, right), including DUP MP Carla Lockhart and TUV leader Jim Allister, were present at Belfast High Court on Tuesday, shamelessly seeking to wind people up with the prospect of a return to the conflagrations of the past.
Their desperation in seeking to win over the unionist vote ahead of next year’s Assembly election was matched only by the preening vanity and absurd rhetoric of agitator turned paralegal, Jamie Bryson.
“This is for the people of loyal Portadown, and those no longer with us. No more are we standing, but now we are marching onward to victory,” claimed Bryson (centre, right).
BACK TO THE 90s?
Mr Mac Cionnaith said that, despite public assurances by nationalist leaders, there is “nervousness” in the Garvaghy Road district.
“A lot of that has been caused by the political shenanigans going on within unionism,” he said.
“Two political parties trying to be top dog and playing politics with the Garvaghy Road, and the Orange Order.”
The dispute has resulted in the deaths of several people.
In 1996 the parade was banned for the first time, but nationalist protesters were later brutally beaten off from the Garvaghy Road in a shocking u-turn.
On July 8 that year Catholic taxi driver Michael McGoldrick was shot dead by members of the UVF outside Lurgan.
In April 1997 Catholic father-of-three Robert Hamill was beaten by a unionist mob in Portadown and died in hospital 11 days later from his injuries.
Weeks later off-duty RUC policeman Gregory Taylor was beaten and kicked to death in Ballymoney in County Antrim by a unionist mob in an attack linked to parade tensions.
In July that year the Garvaghy Road area was again besieged in the early hours of Drumcree Sunday as the Orange Order was again allowed to march through the nationalist district.
The memory of priests being forced to celebrate Mass in front of British army lines after parishioners were blocked from attending their local church remains vivid for many nationalists.
In July 1998, Catholic schoolboys Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn were murdered by unionists after their home was petrol bombed in Ballymoney, County Antrim, in an arson attack connected to the dispute.
First Minister Michelle O’Neill, who visited Garvaghy Road residents on Wednesday, said community tensions have returned to the area over what it has seen this week.
“This is a very confident community, a community that’s very much looking towards the future, and do not want the days of the past visited upon them once again,” she said.
“But this is a community that’s also anxious, very anxious, by what they saw yesterday – a triumphalism that was expressed by the leaders of unionism standing shoulder to shoulder, claiming a victory over this community.
“Does anybody really want to see those days?
“This community certainly doesn’t. I certainly do not want to see those days visited upon us and I think the question here is: for the leaders of unionism, why do they want us to revisit those dark days?
“Why do they want to bring us back to the days of tramping over the rights of this community?
“Why do they want to reach back to the days of unionists lording it over another community?”
She said the reaction of unionist leaders had exposed a desire to return to the past conflict.
“The anxiety that was felt in this community yesterday was what they saw on display by the leaders of political unionism.
“What they saw was an ugliness. What they saw was a harking for the days of the past.
“And what they can’t, or what they can’t fathom here in this community, is why the leaders of political unionism want to revisit those dark days.
“Why do they want to bring that back into this community?
“That does beg the question, why is unionism limping ever more, or day by day, to the more extreme element of things in society?
“None of us want to see this. We want to keep moving forward.”
Sinn Féin MP John Finucane also stressed that the legal ruling was about how the Commission reached its decision, not a victory establishing any right to march through the nationalist district.
“The court has quashed a Parades Commission determination because of failings in how that decision was reached. It has not determined that an Orange Order parade should proceed down the Garvaghy Road, nor does today’s judgment give permission for one,” he said.
“The people of the Garvaghy Road and Portadown have lived peacefully for 28 years and deserve to continue doing so. Drumcree came to represent deep sectarianism, bitterness and division, leaving wounds which have still not fully healed. Nobody should want to reopen those divisions.
“That is why the tribal and triumphalist reaction from some within political unionism today is so telling. Those declaring this a victory for unionism and loyalism should reflect on who exactly they believe has been defeated.
“The residents of the Garvaghy Road are not opponents to be defeated, and this should never become a contest where one community must win and another must lose.
“Our position is clear. We see no logic or justification for an Orange Order parade proceeding down the Garvaghy Road. If a fresh application is made, we will make representations to the Parades Commission firmly on that basis.”
Republicans recalled the determination of the local community in the 1990s to stand up to sectarian intimidation and expressed their support.
In a statement, the IRSP in Portadown said it wished to “reiterate the reality” that there will be no march down Garvaghy Road.
“Any such march taking place down Garvaghy Road is simply unfeasible. Not only do the vast majority of residents object, but the mere mention of a parade is enough to stir up feelings of fear in a community that witnessed horrific acts of violence due to the Drumcree dispute.
“The scars are still visible. The policing of such an event would be astronomical.
“Simply put – it is a nonstarter.
“To residents on the Garvaghy Road, we understand your fears and we hope this puts some minds at ease. We will not let such scenes play out in our community again.”
Mr Mac Cionnaith questioned what had changed to justify reopening the dispute.
“It begs the question what has changed?
“If anything the nationalist population has grown in Portadown.
“They need to factor that into any of their decision making.
“Yes, there have been changes from the last time there was a Drumcree Parade, but they also have to take into account there’s a lot more nationalist houses in the area now.
“And that could impact on what happens, not just on Garvaghy Road, but the commission is going to have seek the opinion of those people out there.
“I know for a fact there’s a number of people don’t want them out there.”
Contentious Orange Order parades continue every year in several nationalist areas across the North, including the giant Apprentice Boys parade in Derry earlier this month, because of a general acceptance of restrictions imposed by the Parades Commission. Those arrangements are now in jeopardy.
Mr Mac Cionnaith said a reversal in Portadown could have implications far beyond the town.
“Because there’s also the other question that needs to be taken into account. You have the Lower Ormeau Road, Springfield Road in Belfast, north Belfast, places like Armagh, Newtownbutler, Bellaghy – are they looking to open everything up again?
“That’s the question that has to be posed, to change the decision here would also mean having to change the decisions in all those other communities.”
He added: “I think it is fair to say, if anything, people will be slightly astounded if there’s any change to the determination at any stage – shocked, disappointed and probably angry.”
The Parades Commission itself has insisted that the court decision does not affect how it will consider future applications.
It said it had “already implemented procedural changes to address the issue identified in the proceedings” and would “continue to discharge its statutory functions and also learn the lessons required from this case”.
Country music is massive in Ireland and the death of Dolly Parton is a major blow for her millions of fans over here. Could anyone not be a fan of Dolly Parton? Has there ever been a more talented, good-natured, warm-hearted person?
I am a big country music fan myself and Dolly Parton was perfect in every way. I particularly liked the more traditional bluegrass songs she sang. Her duet with Steve Martin is a particular gem.
Born on 19 January 1946 in Sevier County, Tennessee, Dolly grew up as one of twelve children in a humble one-room cabin in the Great Smoky Mountains. This rustic upbringing deeply influenced her artistry, inspiring timeless storytelling songs such as “Coat of Many Colours.” Her passion for music surfaced early; she began performing on local radio and television as a young child and made her debut at the Grand Ole Opry at just thirteen years old, introduced by Johnny Cash. Demonstrating remarkable resolve, she packed her bags and moved to Nashville the day after graduating high school in 1964. Her career gained significant momentum when she joined The Porter Wagoner Show in 1967 as a regular performer, establishing a foundation that soon launched her into international solo stardom.
Over a career spanning more than six decades, Parton has established herself as one of history’s most prolific songwriters, composing an estimated 3,000 songs. Remarkably, she wrote two of her most enduring masterpieces “Jolene” and “I Will Always Love You” on the very same day in 1973. The latter would go on to become a global phenomenon once again when recorded by Whitney Houston in 1992. Parton’s remarkable chart presence includes 25 Billboard country number one singles and total record sales exceeding 100 million worldwide. She successfully crossed over into pop stardom and embraced Hollywood acting, earning acclaim for starring roles in hit films such as 9 to 5 and Steel Magnolias. Her contributions have earned her eleven Grammy Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, alongside inductions into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
Beyond her entertainment achievements, Parton’s legacy is deeply defined by her extraordinary philanthropy and entrepreneurial vision. In 1995, she established Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, a literacy organisation that has gifted more than 200 million free books to children around the globe. Her generosity extended to medical science when she donated $1 million to Vanderbilt University Medical Center, helping to fund the critical early research behind the Moderna COVID-19 vaccine. Furthermore, her enterprise as co-owner of The Dollywood Company, which operates the Dollywood theme park in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee continues to provide vital economic support and tourism to the region where she was raised.
I will leave you with her beautiful cover of the Neil Young classic “After the Gold Rush”. May she rest in peace.
Where we ‘doing the right thing’?: The Holy Cross story seen through the eyes of those who walked the gauntlet of hate
25 years on from loyalist blockade of girls’ primary school key figures open up about their role in the dark chapter in Northern Ireland’s troubled past
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The Holy Cross dispute in 2001 attracted worldwide attention
“It was absolutely terrifying… the scariest thing I ever did,” says Elaine Burns as she recalls walking to school with her children along the Ardoyne Road in the autumn of 2001.
What ordinarily was an everyday routine became the centre of global media attention, as young children and their parents walked a gauntlet of hate where they were subjected to sectarian abuse, pelted with missiles, including balloons filled with urine, and even had a blast bomb thrown at them.
The root causes of the Holy Cross protest, in which loyalists vociferously and violently objected to parents from nationalist Ardoyne escorting their children to school, are perhaps as complex as Northern Ireland’s history itself.
The school, by an accident of history and shifting demographics, is an outpost situated in the overwhelmingly Protestant Glenbryn area.
Throughout the Troubles, parents had taken their children to school, largely without incident. However, in the summer of 2001, three years after the signing of the Good Friday Agreement, tensions in the area escalated.
Mrs Burns, a former pupil at Holy Cross girls’ school and an advice worker in Ardoyne who served on the school’s board of governors, believes that already fraught community relations deteriorated noticeably with the arrival of families displaced from the Shankill during the UVF-UDA feud the previous year.
Before this influx, she says, Glenbryn’s population was ageing and many houses lay empty.
“People here shared all the same shops and the Post Office,” she says.
“I think there was a lack of understanding when they moved into an area which is very fluid, and schoolchildren come and go. They weren’t accustomed to living cheek by jowl with people from the other side.”
Professor Peter Shirlow, who was conducting research along the interface in the run-up to the dispute, also highlights the arrival of members of the UDA’s C-Company but he also recalls attacks on Protestant children in a playpark and incidents of verbal intimidation.
“The decline in nearby Protestant communities in Oldpark and Manor Street also led to a sense of being forced out and that Upper Ardoyne would be next,” he says.
Whereas the school had been attacked and burned on a number of occasions, and previously flags had been flown from lampposts and kerbstones painted nearby, in the run-up to the 2001 Twelfth, it was felt the actions of the loyalists became increasingly antagonistic.
Holy Cross Primary School principal Anne Tanney. PICTURE BY STEPHEN DAVISON
Nevertheless, there were ongoing mutual efforts to build and maintain relations with staff and pupils at nearby Wheatfield Primary School, while the Holy Cross’s educational ethos placed a strong emphasis on the Christian values of tolerance and respect.
Inside the entrance hall of the school a quote sourced from an old copy of Readers’ Digest is displayed: “If we’d been born where they were born, we’d believe what they believe.”
“We had done a lot of cross community work and believed that helped the situation but people whipped up hatred and fear, which is an awful shame,” says Mrs Tanney.
An incident in late June, prior to the summer holidays, in which it’s claimed a loyalist putting flags on lampposts was knocked off a ladder, is often cited as the trigger for what followed.
Over the coming days, loyalists blockaded the school and at night there were violent clashes on the interface, with petrol bombs hurled and shots fired.
For the final days of term, the fraction of children who went to school took a detour that involved crossing a playing field and entering the school at the rear through a gap cut in the perimeter fence.
Sinn Féin MLA Gerry Kelly acknowledges that the Glenbryn residents had some legitimate grievances, though not all related to their proximity to Ardoyne.
“But those grievances did not equate to or in any way give legitimacy to the actions that were taken,” he says.
“Nobody could have convinced me to protest outside a girls’ school. I just wouldn’t have. You would’ve just known straight away to catch yourself on.”
The veteran republican says there was a lack of leadership on the unionist side. Nigel Dodds had become the area’s MP weeks earlier, while other prominent politicians included Nelson McCausland of the DUP, who was a councillor at the time, then-Ulster Unionist MLA Fred Cobain, and Billy Hutchinson of the UVF-aligned Progressive Unionist Party.
“Without naming names, they didn’t lead; they were led by the emotional voice in the room,” Mr Kelly says.
Elaine Burns also identifies a leadership vacuum among the Glenbryn residents: “To take their frustration out on young children was not the right thing to do.
“There was a lack of leadership within their community that would’ve enabled them to articulate what their needs were and what was the best way to get those needs met.”
Fr Aidan Troy had arrived at the Holy Cross Monastery from Rome during the summer along with Fr Gary Donegan. He was elected chairman of the school’s board of governors a month before the protest resumed.
Throughout the school holidays, via existing cross-community channels, there were earnest but ultimately unsuccessful efforts to defuse tensions.
Ahead of the new term, the Passionist priest got the parents together and asked them what they wanted to happen on September 3. Their response was unambiguous.
“They said they wanted to go to school up the Ardoyne Road. Full stop,” says Fr Troy.
“They told me: ‘We’re not protesting; we’re not demonstrating; we’re not proving a point. It is a constitutional right to go to take your child to school.’”
At the time, Church of Ireland rector in Ardoyne Rev Stewart Heaney urged a “return to the status quo prior to June 19”, whereby the children would be allowed to go to school “without protest”.
“Christians cannot sit easily with that position,” he said of the blockade.
On the first day of the new term, and for some very young children, their first day at school, the attempted blockade resumed, with the RUC and British Army forcing a path through the protesters.
Visibly upset parents and children were verbally abused at close quarters, while bottles and stones rained down on them.
“I don’t think they envisaged how vicious it was going to be, so the policing wasn’t appropriate and it didn’t provide the level of protection to keep people safe going to school,” she says.
Fr Aidan Troy on the Ardoyne Road in 2001. PICTURE: HUGH RUSSELL
The RUC’s tactics were different the following day, with a cordon created up the middle of the road, with protestors at each side. A blast bomb was thrown from the crowd, which according to loyalists, was aimed at the police. However, the explosive device caused panic and fear among parents and children, some of whom were forced to retreat to safety rather than continue to the school gates.
“As a mummy, you questioned yourself every day over whether your were doing the right thing,” says Elaine Burns, who told her four-year-old daughter that the loud bang of the blast bomb was fireworks to mark her first days at school.
“You had to be also mindful of the trauma your child was going through but at the same time, you have to take a stance. It was our children’s primary school.”
Both Fr Troy and Gerry Kelly were separately asked to accompany the parents on the walk to school.
The Sinn Féin MLA recalls how the request presented him with a dilemma.
“I felt torn. I told them I’d be proud to walk up with them and it’d be a privilege, but I was honest with them in saying that I’d become the story. I was willing to do whatever they wanted but I didn’t want it to distract from what the innocent children and the parents were going through,” he says, adding that most parents understood his reservations.
“It haunted me a bit but I think it was the right decision.”
Fr Troy too was reluctant to walk with the parents, believing he’d become the focus of the protestors’ ire but agreed after a number of mothers stressed that he’d be their “insurance”.
“People think I was a big brave fella but I was terrified,” he recalls.
“The screaming and shouting … all the ‘Father Troy’s a paedophile’ stuff… everyone’s seen it.”
When the children made it to school, the crowd of protestors would disperse before returning at home time.
The priority inside for principal Anne Tanney and her staff was to ensure “everything was normal”.
“My idea was keep the routine as usual and don’t show the children that you’re afraid,” she says.
“Any child who seemed to be particularly afraid or whatever, we would’ve kept them in the morning and talked to them. We used to get bouquets of flowers and send the children around with these flowers to different classrooms and get them involved.
“Being a Catholic school and having very strong Christian principles, our idea was not to escalate anything but to help the children to deal with what was happening, and to make sure that we would have the reconciliation afterwards, and that some good would come of it – although it was an awful thing and you couldn’t imagine anything good coming out of it.”
Elaine Burns recalls how the protestors’ tactics varied as the weeks passed.
“At the beginning, they were very loud with shouting and klaxons but then they went into like an almost silent protest, while at other times they were dressed in Mexican hats. You were asking yourself: ‘What the hell?’.”
The walk to school, while far from routine, took on an air of predictability.
“After a while, it became like a play in the theatre,” recalls Mrs Burns.
“You’d get up the road and the Army would open the curtain and you walked on the stage, and there’d be the audience shouting abuse at you. It was pathetic.”
Girls from Holy Cross school are accompanied by their parents as protestors shout abuse
There were lighter moments too, for instance at Halloween when two fathers walked up dressed as Laurel and Hardy, joking with others about “the fine mess you’ve got us into”.
There were some on the Ardoyne side, though not that many, according to Gerry Kelly, who advocated a response from the IRA, which at this stage had been on ceasefire for four years.
He recalls at the early public meetings, people in the crowd shouting: “Where’s the IRA? You need to do something about this.”
“It’s was just the wrong thing but was it said? Yes, it was. In fairness, it was one or two people and I just talked it down. I brought them through what it would mean and all of that, and I said: ‘Look, that’s not going to happen’.”
Others called for counter protests, which were likewise “knocked back”.
“I found that the further you got away from an interface, the more militant people became, not less,” he says.
The plight of the pupils and their parents made international headlines, and they received support from across the world, with the school receiving thousands of cards with messages of good will. Among those who visited the school at the time was US civil rights campaigner Minnijean Brown-Trickey, one of the Little Rock Nine, a group of African American students who successfully challenged racial segregation at a school in Arkansas.
South African anti-apartheid campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu was also a visitor.
The global media focus dissipated due to events in New York on September 11, however, the ferocity of the protest prevailed with little prospect of an agreed resolution.
Walker Fergus Gains Words of Wisdom from Running Master Tom
Tom McGrath, who lately appears in a New Balance commercial, presents Fergus Farrell with a pair of New Balance shoes at the Black Sheep in Manhattan. Irish Echo photo.
Walker Fergus Gains Words of Wisdom from Running Master Tom
If you want to learn at first hand – or perhaps at first foot – all there is to know about crossing America entirely under your own steam, then you beat a path to Tom McGrath’s door.
Tom is a world renowned super long distance runner and while his actual running days are now in the rear view mirror the Fermanagh man’s knowledge is yet immeasurable, his advice indispensable.
And so it was to that front door, specifically the one fronting the Black Sheep Bar & Restaurant on Third Avenue in Manhattan, that Fergus Farrell made tracks for as the days ticked down to the start of his walk across America.
Farrell and McGrath huddled for the better part of two hours in the Black Sheep on Wednesday discussing everything that could arise during Farrell’s upcoming walk from New York to Los Angeles.
Tom McGrath knows the way, or pretty close to it. He ran from New York to San Francisco in 1977.
Walking and running are essentially the same motion, Tom says.
And so his advice to Fergus, a good deal of it written on sheets of paper, the rest imparted verbally.
Suffice it to say there are more things to consider in a venture like this than the non-transcontinental walker/runner would ever come up with.
If ever there was a case for micro management and micro everything else this is it. And beyond the micro there is the macro – that walk, all 2800 miles of it.
Fergus, who is 47, is from Athenry in County Galway, and who played rugby for Connacht and Galwegians, is walking to raise awareness of spinal cord injury and funds for research. He is backed by the Christopher and Dana Reeve Foundation and Spinal Injuries Ireland.
And now, also, by Tom McGrath.
Fergus is scheduled to appear on ABC’s Good Morning America Friday morning at 8.30 a.m. His walk into the vastness of America will start on Saturday morning on the Manhattan side of the Brooklyn Bridge between 8.30 and 9 .a.m. He will pay his respects at the Great Hunger Memorial on Manhattan’s west side before taking a ferry over to New Jersey.
From there, Fergus will walk. And hopefully do so all the way to Los Angeles.
