A Krakatoa that nobody saw coming: Dáil united on grave business of Garvaghy Road

It was a Krakatoa that nobody saw coming, a political volcano long dormant that erupted with next to no warning. It’s been a quarter of a century since the sectarian siege of Garvaghy Road in Portadown was lifted and finally ended. But over the weekend it became apparent the supply of magma was never fully exhausted and it was threatening to erupt again.At Leaders’ Questions, unsurprisingly, it dominated proceedings. The mood was glum but for once the political leaders were united, mostly agreeing in their downbeat assessments of what occurred over the weekend. READ MOREDuring the mid-1990s the protracted stand-off in mid-July in Portadown spawned sectarian violence, riots and murder. The Orange Order’s insistence on walking what it claimed was the traditional route along Garvaghy Road to Drumcree church brought it into conflict with the residents there, the vast majority of whom were nationalist. The march was finally banned in 1998 and there had been no incident of note since 2011. The decision by the Parades Commission to allow a small parade involving members of the Orange Order early on a Sunday morning re-stoked the fires, and brought a weekend of tension and the prospect of incipient violence.Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald, her voice quivering with anger, raised the issue, asking how could it have happened after 28 years of peace. She recalled the darkest moments of the mid-1990s stand-offs: the murders of solicitor Rosemary Nelson, Robert Hamill – who was “kicked to death” – and the three Quinn boys, aged between 9 and 11, whose home was firebombed by loyalist paramilitaries. “I have spoken to those mothers and grandmothers who lived through the dark years and to parents, children and teenagers also who lived their entire lives free from that intimidation and fear,” she said. “Why in God’s name would anyone seek to drag this community backwards?”[ In pictures: How the Garvaghy Road standoff unfolded on day of high tensionOpens in new window ]In a very rare nod of assent to Taoiseach Micheál Martin, sitting across from her, she said he had “correctly” described the decision by the Parades Commission to allow the march as “incomprehensible”. The solution, she said, was for the new Northern Ireland Secretary of State, Chris Bryant, to “stop this sectarian march being forced down the road”.Given the gravity of the situation, it was a hard job for Martin to segue to a quite different, but monumental, seismic event that has affected Leinster House this week. And that is the retirement of a generational talent, Irish Times columnist and colour writer Miriam Lord, who was sitting in the press gallery, high above the Dáil chamber, for the last time. “If you would indulge me for a moment,” Martin asked Leas-Cheann Comhairle John McGuinness, before launching into a paean of praise for the blushing Lord, who, for all her mercurial writing, is a low-key operator away from the keyboard. “We would all agree that Miriam’s journalism, and in particular her oversight and accounts of our work in this house, has been a critical part our national conversation, and our nation’s democracy.“I have to say, in her unsparing but sharp analysis I sometimes felt that she was rather unfair about me but was always spot on about everyone else.”Cian O’Callaghan of the Social Democrats, Ivana Bacik of Labour and Ruth Coppinger of Solidarity all gamely added their tributes to Lord, who was “only scarleh” at this stage. And then Martin and the others segued back to the grave business of Garvaghy Road.There was general agreement that an international mediator was required. Given the intractable stuff that blew up over the weekend, they might be better off calling for a volcanologist.