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Northern Ireland's most controversial parade explained · THE DAILY BRIEF

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: Hundreds of protesters have blocked a road in Portadown in
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: County Armagh to prevent a march by the loyalist Orange Order.
• 0:07
  Speaker 2: We're going to stay here to 12 o'clock tonight at least.
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  Speaker 3: Denied that right by the very people entrusted to uphold
• 0:15
  Speaker 3: their rights. Those of us who are in elected office
• 0:18
  Speaker 3: have a particular onus on us, I think, to try
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  Speaker 3: and calm and bring temperate language to everything.
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  Speaker 4: But what is for sure is that the re-emergence of
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  Speaker 4: the drum creed parade into the headlines.
• 0:30
  Speaker 3: has laid.
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  Speaker 4: Bare some serious political fault lines in Northern Ireland.
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  Speaker 3: Members of the Orange Order tried to carry out a
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  Speaker 3: parade in Portadown in Northern Ireland. If it had gone ahead,
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  Speaker 3: it would have been the first time in almost 30 years,
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  Speaker 3: but it was blocked by protesters. We'll take you through
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  Speaker 3: what has happened and why, but first, let's explain who
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  Speaker 3: the Orange Order are with our Ireland correspondent, Chris Page.
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  Speaker 4: The Orange Order... is an organisation for members of the
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  Speaker 4: Protestant faith. In this part of the United Kingdom, people
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  Speaker 4: from a Protestant religious background tend to identify as British
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  Speaker 4: and support Northern Ireland's place in the UK. The Order
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  Speaker 4: is named after William of Orange, who seized the British
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  Speaker 4: throne from the Catholic King James in 1688 in what's
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  Speaker 4: called the Glorious Revolution. The Order does have members in
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  Speaker 4: the likes of Scotland, the US and Australia, but its
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  Speaker 4: membership is strongest here in Northern Ireland, which is where
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  Speaker 4: it was founded more than 200 years ago.
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  Speaker 3: So that's a bit about who the Orange Order are,
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  Speaker 3: but Chris can also explain what they stand for.
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  Speaker 4: The Orange Order says it stands for civil liberties, the
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  Speaker 4: Protestant faith, and it's a unionist organisation. It wants to
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  Speaker 4: protect Northern Ireland's current constitutional status. A number of unionist
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  Speaker 4: politicians are members. Throughout the history of Northern Ireland, the
• 1:51
  Speaker 4: Orange Order has been politically influential. Its membership numbers have
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  Speaker 4: dropped in recent decades, but it's still an important group
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  Speaker 4: in unionism. Its main public activity is holding parades, where
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  Speaker 4: members wear orange sashes. They often carry banners and are
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  Speaker 4: accompanied by bands.
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  Speaker 3: The parade route in the town of Portadown includes a
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  Speaker 3: section along the mainly nationalist Kavaki Road. For a number
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  Speaker 3: of years in the 1990s, the Drum Cree Parade dispute
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  Speaker 3: was one of the biggest stories in Northern Ireland. Here's
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  Speaker 3: how Newsround covered the story back in 1998. Hello, and.
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  Speaker 1: First to violence in Northern Ireland. More than 1,000 Protestant
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  Speaker 1: Orangemen marchers are face-to-face with police today, determined to win
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the right to parade through a mainly Catholic area. Violent
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  Speaker 1: protests broke out overnight against the decision to ban the
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  Speaker 1: march from its traditional route. Protesters barricaded dozens of roads
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  Speaker 1: in Belfast with blazing vehicles. The trouble started after Orangemen
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  Speaker 1: were blocked from walking into Portadown following a church service
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  Speaker 1: in Drumcree.
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  Speaker 3: Well, Chris Page has been looking at what the controversial
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  Speaker 3: issues actually are.
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  Speaker 4: The Orange Order holds thousands of parades every year and
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  Speaker 4: the vast majority are not contentious. But in the past particularly,
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  Speaker 4: some of them have passed in, through or close to
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  Speaker 4: areas where the majority of residents are Irish nationalists, people
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  Speaker 4: from a Catholic religious background. Many of them see the
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  Speaker 4: marches as triumphalist and sectarian. The disputes can bring to
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  Speaker 4: the fore issues of identity, symbolism and territory which are
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  Speaker 4: strongly contended in Northern Ireland. Over recent years, many of
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  Speaker 4: the disputes have been resolved through local agreements.
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  Speaker 3: So, we know this parade has caused a lot of
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  Speaker 3: violence in the past and hasn't been allowed for almost
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  Speaker 3: 30 years until now. But what exactly is the drum
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  Speaker 3: career dispute about? Chris Page has been covering the issue
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  Speaker 3: for many years and can explain more.
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  Speaker 4: This is the Garbacchi Road in Portadown, which is probably
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  Speaker 4: the most contentious parading route in Northern Ireland. Most of
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  Speaker 4: the residents here are Irish nationalists, and that means they
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  Speaker 4: don't want a unionist organisation parading along the road. In
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  Speaker 4: the 1990s, the dispute over the Drum Cree Parade sparked
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  Speaker 4: some of the most serious rioting in the history of
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  Speaker 4: Northern Ireland. Hundreds of Orange men held an annual parade
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  Speaker 4: from Drum Cree Church, which passed along this road. Since 1998,
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  Speaker 4: the body which regulates contentious marches, the Parades Commission, has
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  Speaker 4: banned the Orange Order from walking the route. But a
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  Speaker 4: few days ago, the Commission gave 35 members of the
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  Speaker 4: Order permission to walk along the Gervaki Road with no music.
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  Speaker 4: On Sunday, when the parade was due to take place,
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  Speaker 4: hundreds of residents and demonstrators blocked the road to prevent
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  Speaker 4: the march from taking place.
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  Speaker 3: Well, since the parade was blocked, politicians in Northern Ireland
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  Speaker 3: have clashed at Stormont. The DUP are furious that Northern
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  Speaker 3: Ireland's First Minister, Michelle O'Deal, who's also Vice President of
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  Speaker 3: Sinn Féin, joined the protesters. Deputy First Minister and DUP
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  Speaker 3: member Emma Little-Pengelly had this to say on the issue.
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  Speaker 5: When the situation called for calm heads, Michelle O'Neill called
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  Speaker 5: people onto the streets, joined them and called for them
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  Speaker 5: to stay there. When her obligations were to uphold the law,
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  Speaker 5: Michelle O'Neill not only broke the law, but encouraged others
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  Speaker 5: to do so. And when the people of Northern Ireland
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  Speaker 5: needed responsible leadership, Michelle O'Neill decided... on populist political stump speeches,
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  Speaker 5: in breaking the law, defying a lawful decision of the
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  Speaker 5: courts and encouraging others to do so. Michelle O'Neill decided
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  Speaker 5: to follow the law of the mob and not the
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  Speaker 5: law of the land. And that matters. It matters.
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  Speaker 3: But the First Minister gave a statement to the Chamber
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  Speaker 3: saying she was incredibly proud to be with the Gavaki
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  Speaker 3: Road residents yesterday.
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  Speaker 2: May I invite you in to 2026? the days of
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  Speaker 2: unionist supremacy and domination are gone. We will not be
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: going backwards. We are about the future. I've heard a
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  Speaker 2: lot today about the health service and education, and those
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  Speaker 2: things are valid. But so too are the rights of
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  Speaker 2: the people of the Givahi Road not to be trampled upon.
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  Speaker 2: So I think it's right and proper that people stood
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  Speaker 2: with the community in Givahi over the last couple of days.
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  Speaker 2: And I think those people that wanted to force this
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  Speaker 2: march down that road need to give their heads a
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  Speaker 2: shake Why? Why do the Orange Order, why do the DUP,
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  Speaker 2: why do unionism in general want to railroad over the
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  Speaker 2: rights of these people?
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  Speaker 3: So politicians are divided, people on the streets are divided,
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  Speaker 3: and we know this parade has caused violence in the
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  Speaker 3: past linked to the Troubles. Well, Chris Page can explain
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  Speaker 3: the Troubles in Northern Ireland.
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  Speaker 4: The Troubles is the name given to a period of
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  Speaker 4: conflict which lasted decades. from the late 1960s until the
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  Speaker 4: late 1990s. More than 3,000 people were killed. It was
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  Speaker 4: a complex conflict... but one of the main issues was
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  Speaker 4: whether Northern Ireland... should stay in the UK or become
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  Speaker 4: part of the Republic of Ireland. The troubles largely ended
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  Speaker 4: in 1998... with the Good Friday Peace Agreement. It was
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  Speaker 4: signed by the British and Irish governments... and by political
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  Speaker 4: parties in Northern Ireland... some of whom had links to
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  Speaker 4: paramilitary organisations. The peace has largely held... But political and
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  Speaker 4: community divisions remain, and all those years of violence have
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  Speaker 4: left a deep legacy of trauma.
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  Speaker 3: And that is a bit more detail on why a
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  Speaker 3: controversial parade organised by Northern Ireland's Orange Order has been
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  Speaker 3: blocked by protesters.