SUPPORT DRUMCREE FOR OUR CULTURE IS SURELY SLIPPING AWAY FROM US!!!
Years of confrontation have made the word 'DRUMCREE' internationally synonymous with the worst aspects of the Northern Ireland conflict.The crisis was sparked in the summer of 1995 as the small market town of Portadown became the scene of a violent stand-off between the local lodges of the Protestant Orange Order and the Catholic residents of the Garvaghy Road-route of the Orange marchers' traditional parade after their church service at Drumcree.This first showdown set the pattern for the confrontations that have followed every year since in the town that has been described as the 'Vatican of Orangeism',and the repercussions have spread far beyond.....
The Truth
The tradition of parading in this area is almost 200 years old and stretches back to before the Garvaghy road even existed !!
Only ONE band takes part in the Drumcree church parade.In previous years several bands took part.
Nine parades along the Garvaghy road and Obins street have now been reduced to one-The drumcree church parade.
One end of the Garvaghy Road is still a Protestant area-approximately 20% of Garvaghy road residents are therefore protestants.
This is a church parade,consisting of a group of approximately 1,000 elderly men singing hymns whilst returning from worship.
Brendan McKenna-THE TRUTH
Brendan McKenna emerged as the main leader for the Garvaghy Road Resident's Coalition in the mid 1990's.A convicted I.R.A. Terrorist,he has been an outspoken critic of peaceful and lawful parades along Garvaghy Road.McKenna is a former I.R.A. terrorist who has recently served a jail term for his role in a bomb attack on an ex-serviceman's community centre in Portadown.Following the Bombing,Mckenna was arrested,found guilty of Possessing a firearm,False imprisonment and hi-jacking and later jailed for six years.Sentencing,Judge William Doyle,said McKenna had been convicted by the most "cogent evidence" and described McKenna's offences as "Horrifying".
