Chris Bryant says Drumcree resolution is close as residents offer conditional acceptance

Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant said on Wednesday 30 September that a resolution of the Drumcree parade dispute in Portadown was ‘tantalisingly close’, after the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition said it would accept a proposal drawn up by his team if the Orange Order accepted it too. The terms have not been disclosed, and there is no confirmed agreement.

The shift follows the blocked Orange Order march along Garvaghy Road on Sunday. NewsJaws reported then on the parade being stopped amid a residents’ protest. Bryant’s talks have since produced a document the residents say they can accept conditionally; whether the Orange Order will accept it is still unknown.

What the residents said about Bryant’s proposal

Breandán Mac Cionnaith, leader of the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition, said on Wednesday that he had reviewed the document prepared by Bryant and his team. ‘Obviously, I can’t divulge what is in it,’ he said after meeting the secretary. ‘But if it’s accepted by the Orange Order, it will be accepted by us.’ His statement establishes a condition, rather than acceptance by both sides.

Bryant, who met representatives of both sides at Hillsborough Castle, appealed for another compromise. He said people would have to ‘search deep in their souls for another chunk of compromise’ to achieve a lasting resolution. He described an outcome as ‘tantalisingly close if everybody can just go that extra mile’. Neither Bryant’s remarks nor Mac Cionnaith’s statement set out what the document would require either side to do.

What the Orange Order has said about the march

The Orange Order’s response to Bryant’s document has not been established in the reporting available on Wednesday evening. Its previously stated position was that it had legal authority to march. Portadown district master Nigel Dawson told The Irish Times on Tuesday: ‘We look forward to the law being applied to the parade.’ That statement predates the residents’ conditional acceptance and cannot be treated as an answer to the new proposal.

The dispute centres on a route through the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road area. The Parades Commission authorised a restricted march for Sunday 27 September, allowing 35 Orange Order members to proceed from Drumcree Church, with an 8am start and no bands, according to The Journal. Protesters blocked the route and the parade did not go ahead. Orange Order members remained at Drumcree Church as the standoff continued, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.

The route has a long and painful history. The Orange Order had been barred from marching along Garvaghy Road since 1998. The Journal reports that the dispute in the late 1990s brought violent clashes and major security operations over several summers. It also reports that the Order submitted more than 1,300 applications to march along the road after 1998. Those years help explain why this week’s decision has drawn such strong reactions from residents and marchers.

The legal challenge and the next steps

The residents’ coalition has lodged a fresh legal challenge to the Parades Commission’s decision. Its lawyers argue that the commission ‘materially misdirected itself’ over the police assessment of possible disorder and did not accurately represent police evidence, according to The Irish Times. Those are the applicants’ arguments, not findings by a court. The Irish Times said the case was listed for Friday 2 October at the Court of Appeal in Belfast.

The legal proceedings are separate from the talks Bryant is conducting. The commission’s decision allowed a limited parade, but the march has not taken place. A negotiated settlement would require acceptance beyond the residents’ conditional statement; the document’s undisclosed terms and the Orange Order’s response remain central unanswered questions. The scheduled hearing could address the challenge to the commission’s decision, but its outcome is not yet known.

Political leaders have also differed over how to resolve the standoff. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald urged the British government to intervene and ban the march, The Irish Times reported. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said one intervention would not resolve the dispute and called for a collective path involving mediation. Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee said she thought an international mediator was likely to be appointed, but that was an expectation rather than a confirmed appointment.