Christmas Day protest is held at Drumcree by Orangemen
A number of Orangemen protested at Drumcree yesterday.
They were stopped by police from parading any further, as part of a long-running dispute.
The Christmas Day protest happened because this year it fell on a Sunday.
Alan Burns, who took the photograph right yesterday afternoon, said:
“I am also an Orangeman who attends the protest 52 weeks a year.
"This is our 24th year protesting at Drumcree.
"We protest every Sunday at 1pm against the decision by the Parades Commission not to allow us to parade back to Carleton Street Orange Hall in Portadown via the Garvaghy Road.”
Drumcree became a major dispute in 1995. The Orange Order says it should be allowed to march its traditional route to and from Drumcree Church on the Sunday before the Twelfth. Most of the route if through a nationalist part of Portadown.
The CAIN Archive website, which collects information and source material on the Troubles, says: “Ironically the trouble at Drumcree in 1995 occurred during the first year of the ceasefires announced by Republican and Loyalist paramilitary groups.
"Many people hoped that the 'marching season' would pass off peacefully but this was not to be the case. Some writers have suggested that because of the ceasefires the issue of parades became, for some, an alternative means of displaying and mobilising behind their traditional political demands.”
The website adds: “The events surrounding the Drumcree parade prompted strong responses from various sections of the community, political parties and the Irish government.”