Orange Order march row goes to heart of ongoing divisions in Northern Ireland

Although there has been an uneasy calm in Portadown over the parading issue in recent years, the Orange Order regards the march as unfinished business.

In 1998, it was banned from completing its Drumcree march – which includes the Garvaghy Road – and has been repeatedly refused permission to finish the route ever since.

It has applied and been turned down more than 1,000 times in the past three decades.

It says it is being denied a traditional walk which dates back to the early 1800s.

A Parades Commission was set up in the late 1990s to adjudicate on marching disputes and, until now, it has consistently ruled against the route.

The Orange Order’s legal challenge to a ruling in June this year succeeded on procedural grounds.

The order subsequently re-applied for permission to carry out the parade, albeit a scaled-back version with only 35 participants rather than 400 – and was successful.

Nationalist residents on the Garvaghy Road were left shocked and angry.

For them, the parade is triumphalist and unwelcome in the area.