‘Everybody wants this to end’: Protestant group pushes UK government to end Drumcree standoff

When Claire Mitchell met four friends for breakfast in Belfast last Sunday morning, they abandoned their food and drove to Portadown’s Garvaghy Road. They were all Protestant women.“We just packed our bags, got straight in the car, and headed down,” says Mitchell, a writer.Their aim was to speak to residents.Thousands of protesters were on the road blocking a controversial Orange Order march from Drumcree church by the time they arrived.READ MOREMitchell, whose great-grandmother was a “proud Orangewoman”, walked the length of the nationalist Garvaghy Road to a community centre.Baptist minister Rev Karen Sethuraman accompanied her.“There was so much politics going on, but we just spoke to local people all day. It was heartbreaking. The trauma, the PTSD ...” says Mitchell.The visit was central to informing an open letter written by Mitchell on behalf of a group of “concerned individuals from a Protestant background” four days later.Claire Mitchell, a writer and researcher from Belfast, is also on the board of Naíscoil na Seolta. Picture: Enda O'Dowd/The Irish Times They urged the Orange Order to “look at the bigger picture” and end the parades impasse “in the interests of our entire community”.Signatories include Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) founding member Wallace Thompson, Irish language activist Linda Ervine, retired Goal humanitarian aid worker and former loyalist David Adams and Presbyterian Minister Rev David Latimer. Published late Thursday night when talks aimed at resolving the dispute collapsed, the letter was sent to Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee and Northern Secretary Chris Bryant.More than 1,000 people had signed it by Friday afternoon.“We felt that ordinary Protestants didn’t have a voice in all of this,” Mitchell tells The Irish Times.“For individual Protestants to speak out, it felt very unsafe for a lot of people. We thought if we could combine a lot of our voices, it would give people a little bit of cover.”[ Drumcree proves that unification of Ireland is the North’s best betOpens in new window ]Doctors, nurses, social workers, farmers, evangelical Christians, teachers, classroom assistants and lawyers were among those to add their names throughout Friday.Some have signed “unionist” or “mother”, Mitchell said.The letter recognises that Portadown’s Orangemen regard Drumcree as “unfinished business”.“Many of us have family and friends for whom parading is a valued tradition, and some of us have been directly involved ourselves,” it adds.However, it highlights the distress felt among the Protestant community at the “trauma being visited on the residents of the Garvaghy Road after 28 years of calm”.Hours before its release, Garvaghy Road resident Maxine Cusack (64) said two Protestant friends had contacted her in recent days.[ From local row to peace-process shambles: How the Drumcree standoff developedOpens in new window ]“One woman, who I’ve known for years, texted me asking if we were still friends,” says Cusack.“Everybody wants this to end.”The standoff entered its sixth day on Friday as residents prepare to lodge a fresh legal challenge to the Court of Appeal on Monday.Unlike the Drumcree dispute in the 1990s, there has been no violence, but there are growing concerns about the impact on the peace process.“We have all struggled to explain this to our children who don’t understand this and what life used to be like in Northern Ireland,” says Mitchell.“We have just been overwhelmed by the reaction in the Protestant community, at people saying to us they want peace.”[ Drumcree: ‘I want to stop all this in its tracks. I have five grandchildren; it’s breaking my heart’Opens in new window ]The letter calls on the Dublin and London government ministers to “act together without delay” to restore stability.“We must avoid the abyss we are currently staring into,” it adds.For Mitchell, protecting the progress made over the past 30 years is “vital”.“In 2026, all of our friendships have diversified so much. I now have republican friends as well as loyalists,” she says.“When Drumcree was unfolding, they were in our messages. When you were hearing it from your friends rather than people on social media or the news, it just goes for your heart.“I think we all felt we have to go and stand with our friends.”