Drumcree conflict

The Drumcree conflict or Drumcree standoff is a dispute over yearly parades in the town of Portadown in the north of County Armagh, Northern Ireland. The town is mainly Protestant and hosts numerous Protestant and Ulster loyalist marches each summer, but has a significant Catholic minority. The Protestant Orange Order insists that it should be allowed to march its traditional route to and from Drumcree Church on the Sunday before the Twelfth of July. However, most of this route is through the mainly Catholic/Irish nationalist part of town. The residents, who see the march as sectarian, triumphalist and supremacist, have sought to ban it from their area. During the Troubles in the 1980s and 1990s, the dispute intensified and resulted in large protests, riots, sectarian violence, and massive security operations. The Orangemen had marched the route since 1807, along what was then mostly country roads. There has been intermittent violence over the march since the 1870s. The early conflict was focused on the outward leg along Obins Street, through the Catholic enclave known as 'the Tunnel'. The outbreak of the Troubles led to the dispute intensifying in the 1970s and 1980s. After protests and serious violence two years in a row, the march was banned from Obins Street in 1986. The focus then shifted to the march's return leg along Garvaghy Road. Each July from 1995 to 2000, the dispute drew international attention as it sparked protests and violence throughout Northern Ireland, prompted a massive police and British Army operation, and threatened to derail the peace process. The situation in Portadown was likened to a "siege" and a "war zone". During this time, the dispute was linked to several killings by loyalists, including those of Catholic civilians Michael McGoldrick, the Quinn children, and Rosemary Nelson, as well as police officer...