Newton Emerson: Drumcree standoff puts a significant achievement of the peace process at risk

“No talking, no walking” was the position of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition from the outset of the dispute in 1995.If Portadown District Orange Lodge would not talk to residents, they would not agree to a parade.The Orangemen would not talk because they believed they needed no consent from residents to walk “the Queen’s highway”. They did engage in shuttle diplomacy in 1995, with mediators moving between both sides until a parade was agreed. But the lack of direct contact led to mutual misunderstanding: residents thought they had a respectful compromise; Orangemen thought they had won. Notorious scenes of jubilation outside Portadown’s Orange Hall destroyed the deal and have left residents wary ever since.This deadlock has defined Drumcree and the British government’s strategic response: the creation of the Parades Commission in 1998.READ MOREThe purpose of the commission, never quite admitted, was to contain Drumcree within a framework applicable to parading overall.Legally, it is difficult to prevent a lawful organisation marching where residents find it offensive. Rights to free assembly and free association will generally take precedence over a disruption to the right to peaceful enjoyment of your home.So the commission does not ban parades. It applies restrictions where local agreement cannot be found. Even Drumcree is not banned – the Garvaghy Road section of its return leg has merely been rerouted.By law, the first function of the commission is to promote and facilitate mediation.Because Portadown Orangemen have spurned direct engagement, they have conveniently rerouted themselves. Instead of talking, a dozen or so have walked to the top of the Garvaghy Road every Sunday for 28 years, complained to a police officer, then turned around. Their unique intransigence has provided Drumcree with its unique solution. Elsewhere, the mediation or restriction model has been enormously successful, resolving every other contentious parade as of 2016. A deal that year in North Belfast permitted one small, early morning parade.[ Drumcree: ‘I want to stop all this in its tracks. I have five grandchildren; it’s breaking my heart’Opens in new window ]Garvaghy Road residents continued to play their part by holding the offer of mediation open, even if this has sometimes strained credulity. One deal offered in 1998 was for 32 Orangemen to march alongside 32 Catholic children in GAA tops.But this has all now been turned on its head by a change in Orange tactics.In May, the Portadown lodge wrote to the commission saying it was available for direct mediation without preconditions. One month later, the commission issued its annual rerouting restriction. A Portadown Orangeman took this to a judicial review, where it was found the commission had not been properly applying its own procedures, including the requirement to facilitate mediation. It had become accustomed to rubber-stamping through the decision everyone expected.The Portadown lodge applied for a fresh parade, to take place last Sunday, and the commission appointed a mediation company to facilitate talks.By this point, nationalist politicians were insisting no Orange parade can ever march down the Garvaghy Road. Residents were more careful, remaining officially open to mediation – the 32 children offer was again mentioned. But two weeks ago, they rejected the mediation company on the grounds it had previously worked with the Orange Order – hardly unusual for such a business in Northern Ireland.[ Northern Ireland is staring into the abyss. The peace process is at its weakest since 1998Opens in new window ]The commission was now boxed in by the law, the courts and the conduct of both sides in Portadown. A parade could only be avoided if the PSNI judged it highly likely to cause serious public disorder. The PSNI did not judge this likely, a decision it could usefully explain, although its assessment was correct: there was no serious disorder. The rerouting restriction was duly lifted, and a last-ditch attempt by residents to reinstate it failed in the courts.Taoiseach Micheál Martin is among the many public figures to call this “inexplicable” and to ask what has changed compared to the previous 28 years. Yet the change in Orange tactics made it perfectly explicable and almost inevitable. There appears to be a letter versus spirit confusion over the parading legislation, with most of nationalism convinced its spirit bans a parade on the Garvaghy Road, despite its statement otherwise. In fairness, everyone has been led to believe this for a long time.[ ‘It’s like going back in time’ – after 28 years, communities stand off on Garvaghy RoadOpens in new window ]What the law actually requires is a genuine effort at compromise, pointing inexorably towards a North Belfast-type resolution of one small parade – ideally one, then no more – to salve Orange pride and put this nonsense to bed forever.Residents now say they will accept an international mediator, a proposal backed by the SDLP. Political leadership on all sides means supporting talks that are open to the possibility of a walk.Any alternative admits Drumcree has been rigged, for one side or the other. That risks unravelling a parades regulation system that has been one of the most significant achievements of the peace process.