Drumcree: Garvaghy Road residents fail in bid to challenge Parades Commission decision

The Drumcree parade dispute began in the mid-1990s and it almost derailed the peace process at the time.

Violence related to the dispute resulted in riots, roadblocks and murders.

When the Orange Order was prevented by police from walking down the route in July 1995 there was a tense stand-off. It was the same for the next three years.

The Parades Commission began operating in 1998 to regulate parades and try to defuse tension around marches.

Its decision not to allow a march down the Garvaghy Road that summer has been challenged by the order for the past three decades.

Last month the Parades Commission decided that the march could go ahead on 27 September with restrictions in place after its original decision to stop the march was overturned in court.

That morning, up to 1,000 people – including nationalist politicians – blocked the road, preventing Orangemen marching from Drumcree Church a mile to the west.

Since then there have been repeated attempts by the Orange Order to walk the route, but they have been stopped by police.

Residents maintained a constant presence on the Garvaghy Road, but that ended on Friday when the NI Secretary Sir Chris Bryant banned the parade following advice from the PSNI chief constable.