Drumcree Is Over!

[Square Ball]

I see in all the papers today and on RTE all day yesterday they are reporting the Drumcree OO march passed off peacefully. I'm I wrong or was someone expecting problems? Why would they report this so heavily every year when it is now a local matter being successfully dealt with locally every year. It's almost like they (and the Nation) were waiting for trouble and made a big deal about it as if it was a crisis averted.

One of the quietest Drumcree Sundays  ever, UTV only had a short report about it and I had forgotten all about it. were as two or three years ago there was a long build up to it. I don't think the authorities were expecting any trouble.

cant see the OO getting down the road except with the approval of the local residents, and i dont see that happening soon.

[Orior]

now that the argument has been won by the residents. would it not be a great peaceful gesture to allow the march to take place next  year?. would do a lot for relations across the province

ABSOLUTELY NOT!!!!!!! The residents should immediately instigate a tradition of marching through Portadown each year to celebrate their victory a la the Battle of the Boyne.

[Maguire01]

Surely the argument is over as the Garvaghy Road can no longer be their 'traditional' route after 10 years?

[Gnevin]

Has a local council ever planed to change the layout of street and being objected to by the OO?

[Square Ball]

this will never be settled until the residents and the OO reach an agreement, the OO's bannerett (or whatever you call it) has yet to make the return journey from the last time they were stopped from the return leg, so the OO want the return leg to bring it home so to speak. this is one of two of the main contentious parades that remain unsolved, the other one is the Ormeau road one and that one will run and run.

[rosnarun]

I can't remember the year (1997 or 1998 I think) the residents let the marchers down Garvaghy, but it blew back in the faces.

surely the point there is there was force used to get them down. but it still remains a festering would and a possible flash point for future trouble. apparently certain lunatic fringe try to march every sunday 52 weeks of the year only to be turned back. why not take the wind out of it and let them down every second year.
the  thought struck me a few weeks back when i attended a 1st communion cermony in Durrow offaly which is held on the pattern day . after Mass we marched(paraded) behind  a brass band to a holy well at Durrow Abbey. aparrently its been going on hundreds of years . but we were joking how odd it would be if it were to be stopped beacuse we passed  a Prod's  house or church and how in a bizzare way it was more or less what drumcree was all about.
Time to forgive and forget

[Rossfan]

What struck me as ironic was the orange leader appealing to the Residents  to meet his organisation.
It was the O O who point blank refused to sit in the same room as Residents for years.When some Brit Minister or some mediator tried to organise a meeting (about 2001 or 2002?) The OO said they would attend as long as the first item on the agenda was the holding of the 1998 parade.

[Zapatista]

I can't remember the year (1997 or 1998 I think) the residents let the marchers down Garvaghy, but it blew back in the faces.

surely the point there is there was force used to get them down. but it still remains a festering would and a possible flash point for future trouble. apparently certain lunatic fringe try to march every sunday 52 weeks of the year only to be turned back. why not take the wind out of it and let them down every second year.
the  thought struck me a few weeks back when i attended a 1st communion cermony in Durrow offaly which is held on the pattern day . after Mass we marched(paraded) behind  a brass band to a holy well at Durrow Abbey. aparrently its been going on hundreds of years . but we were joking how odd it would be if it were to be stopped beacuse we passed  a Prod's  house or church and how in a bizzare way it was more or less what drumcree was all about.
Time to forgive and forget

Drumcree was in no way about that and to say it was is belittleing the people of the Gervaghy Rd. Drumcree was an extraordinary situation.

[Maguire01]

this will never be settled until the residents and the OO reach an agreement, the OO's bannerett (or whatever you call it) has yet to make the return journey from the last time they were stopped from the return leg, so the OO want the return leg to bring it home so to speak. this is one of two of the main contentious parades that remain unsolved, the other one is the Ormeau road one and that one will run and run.

Sure if that's all they want, they can stick it in the back of a van and drive it back at any time! But nobody would notice, and i suspect that's the point.

[Rufus T Firefly]

now that the argument has been won by the residents. would it not be a great peaceful gesture to allow the march to take place next  year?. would do a lot for relations across the province

I can't remember the year (1997 or 1998 I think) the residents let the marchers down Garvaghy, but it blew back in the faces.

1995 Zig - that was the year a deal was done, then Ian Mor and David Trimble marche triumphantly back into Portadown, denying any deal. The seeds were sown then for what followed.

Some of those Drumcree days and the days leading up to them around that time, were dark indeed, particularly 1995 - 1998 inclusive - I'll never forget the eerie atmosphere everywhere you went. Looking back, it appears it was the deaths of the innocents in Ballymoney that brought the protest down. 

[ziggysego]

now that the argument has been won by the residents. would it not be a great peaceful gesture to allow the march to take place next  year?. would do a lot for relations across the province

I can't remember the year (1997 or 1998 I think) the residents let the marchers down Garvaghy, but it blew back in the faces.

1995 Zig - that was the year a deal was done, then Ian Mor and David Trimble marche triumphantly back into Portadown, denying any deal. The seeds were sown then for what followed.

You're right, that's it. I knew Paisley and Trimble were acting the p***k after it.

It's no wonder the residents won't do a deal, for the OO could deny any dealings and do what they want after.

[maddog]

now that the argument has been won by the residents. would it not be a great peaceful gesture to allow the march to take place next  year?. would do a lot for relations across the province

I can't remember the year (1997 or 1998 I think) the residents let the marchers down Garvaghy, but it blew back in the faces.

1995 Zig - that was the year a deal was done, then Ian Mor and David Trimble marche triumphantly back into Portadown, denying any deal. The seeds were sown then for what followed.

Some of those Drumcree days and the days leading up to them around that time, were dark indeed, particularly 1995 - 1998 inclusive - I'll never forget the eerie atmosphere everywhere you went. Looking back, it appears it was the deaths of the innocents in Ballymoney that brought the protest down. 

I remember in 97 i think it was, i was home for Inch's wedding, we were very lucky even to get back out of the place, i remember going up by the ring road and trucks cars burning, hoods stopping cars and setting fire to them, rioting up by the shambles etc. When i got back to Birmingham the house had been burgled. What a weekend.

[rosnarun]

well it looks like there is no appetite for reconcilliation  on this board.
I really fear these unresolved issues will come back to bite again. esp with the tone ofn many of the posters tone. all it takes is a spark.

[Square Ball]

well it looks like there is no appetite for reconcilliation  on this board.
I really fear these unresolved issues will come back to bite again. esp with the tone ofn many of the posters tone. all it takes is a spark.

I wouldn't go that far, there is a consensus that the only way forward on this issue is by dialogue, this is a step in the right direction., but if after dialogue and there is no parade.... well thats a different ball game.

[Zapatista]

well it looks like there is no appetite for reconcilliation  on this board.
I really fear these unresolved issues will come back to bite again. esp with the tone ofn many of the posters tone. all it takes is a spark.

Yourself and Tankie seem to have an appetite for it. I think there are a number of different views on the board.