Drumcree Orange chief Nigel Dawson on life, community theatre and missing Sunday lunch for 30 years
The leading Orangeman in the Drumcree row has missed Sunday lunch for almost 30 years due to the dispute, he says.
And away from the debate over the Garvaghy Road parade, Portadown District Master Nigel Dawson has also spent almost three decades producing the Portadown panto with local amateur drama group the Gateway Theatre.
Nigel has been involved in talks around the long-standing dispute "from day one".
First as a member of the Orange District Committee in 1995/6, ten years as district secretary, deputy district master for 15 years and just over four years as district master.
As district secretary he took minutes of all related meetings and was able to supply a 19-page affidavit to the High Court in the recent case which saw the Parades Commission excoriate their failure to follow due process in adjudicating on the parade.
"I listed all of the things that we attempted to do and all the offers that we made," he said.
In all that time they have never once met Garvaghy Road residents Coalition.
"They were all bilateral meetings because they wouldn't come into the room."
He met Tony Blair five times and worked closely with his chief of staff Jonathan Powell.
Nigel was one of the two members of the district who flew to South Africa under the initiative of South African judge Brian Curran, along with business leaders and town managers from Portadown.
"But the trip went ahead anyway. It was very useful."
The last time the Orangemen walked down the road was 1997.
Originally a very rural area, over many decades it became more urbanised and much more nationalist in make up.
In 1995 the parade was stopped and there was a stand-off, he recalls.
It was also stopped in 1996, but then in 1997 it was "put down the road and policed down the road".
In 1997 the North Report was compiled on the situation, with the result that the Parades Commission was formed under the oversight of Secretary of State Mo Mowlam.
Since then, the commission has never approved an Orange parade going down the Garvaghy Road, he adds.
In his day job, Nigel works for local government as a Conference Centre Manager.
"The other half of my life is very much based in in the community in the town - I'm a member of the local amateur drama group the Gateway Theatre.
"Not a lot of people know this, but I produced the Portadown panto for 28 years and I have been in probably 40 plays.
"We are renowned for delivering Sam Cree comedy plays - he actually wrote one for the group."
With his many hats on he often has quiet conversations with people from across the Garvaghy Road area about the parade.
Some people from the area say that they would not even hear it or see it going past for a few minutes and wouldn't mind the parade.
“Others, if they were pushed about whether they really want the parade, say the answer would be, 'Maybe not, but I don't really have a big problem with you'.”
"But nobody has ever contacted me absolutely in my face and lambasted me for for looking to complete the parade."
He has never spoken to Breandán Mac Cionnaith, spokesperson for Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, even though he was a councillor for a period in the council where Nigel works.
"From 1998, I have been to Drumcree for 48 Sundays out of 52 for the entire 28 years.
"I have not had my Sunday lunch in my house ever in that time," he adds.
There are 14 other men in the same position - at the Drumcree protest line every Sunday.
His great grandfather and grandfather were also members of the order - but his father, a long distance lorry driver, wasn't.
He still has his grandfather's collarette.
For Nigel, the Orange Order is based on the Bible.
“I'm a member of the Presbyterian Church in Portadown,” he said. “The Orange Order is just based on the Bible. All our meetings are opened with scripture and prayer."
If you ever look at a collarete, the vast majority of them have the Bible and crown on them, he notes.
"When we're on parade that is just an outward manifestation of the basis of the Orange institution."
Asked if parading was present in the New Testament church, he replies: "No, but if you delve back into the Bible, there was also stoning of people.
"So the Bible is open to a lot of interpretations. But I would say the Orange Order tries to hold very fast to the teachings of the Bible."