Once it was the Protestant mecca. Up to 30,000 believers came from all over
the North. Elderly Orangemen in Sunday suits and sashes, tattooed thugs,
respectable Middle Ulster families, politicians and paramilitaries.
Now they come no more. Only 1,000 Orangemen and their supporters are
expected at Drumcree today. It's the seventh year they've been banned from
marching down the Garvaghy Road.
"This protest is a joke now," says Portadown loyalist Ivan Porter. I've been
at Drumcree every year since it started but I'll stay in my bed on Sunday.
It's a waste of time. I blame the top boys in the Orange Order. We were
lions led by donkeys."
The security presence at the pretty hilltop church has been massively scaled
down on previous years. After their morning service to commemorate the
Battle of the Somme, the Orangemen will march down the hill to the barrier
where they will hand a letter of protest to police.
Chief Supt Henry McMullan, who is in charge of the policing operation,
predicts a peaceful day. It certainly isn't the battlefield of before when
hundreds of British soldiers with blackened faces and machine-guns crouched
beneath trees, long lines of barbed wire and trenches scarred the hillside,
and helicopters hovered overhead.
With the sun spilling from a clear blue sky and blackbirds dancing alone the
hedgerows, Drumcree is an oasis of peace. Families arrive at the cemetery
beside the church to place pots of Orange lilies on neat, well-tended
graves, where generations of Hendersons, Montgomeries, and Magowans lie.
"I'm 78 and I never thought I'd live to see the day when law-abiding
citizens can't walk the Queen's highway. There's no hope for this country,"
says Bertie Todd. "I still support the protest. We've got to maintain our
stand like our forefathers at the Somme. But it's so sad."
An Orangeman, who asks not to be named, says he hopes the British government
will buy the land at the bottom of the hill and build industrial units
there, thus ending the whole Drumcree dispute and "getting the Order off the
hook".
Down on the Garvaghy Road, the mood is markedly different. In previous
years, residents - fearing road-blocks - would stock up on bread and milk.
Children and old people would be sent away in case the violence became
intense.
This year, the community centre is buzzing. Young girls in big skirts, white
socks and too much make-up dance the afternoon away to 50s hits. Staff watch
the Wimbledon semi-finals. A vase with Sweet William - a loyalist flower -
sits on a shelf.
From a trailer up the road, the Dogs' Trust is trying to convince residents
to microchip and neuter their pets. "Its £10 for neutering, £9.50 for
micro-shipping and they're both free if you're on benefit," explains Gerry
Drake.
Eamonn Metcalf arrives to have his two lurchers, Socks and Boots,
micro-chipped. "She's running in Tandragree in a few days and she'll win.
You should put a few bob on her," he advises, pointing to Socks.
"Our community has moved on from Drumcree," says Breandan MacCionnaith of
the Residents' Coalition. "People are getting on with their lives. The
Orange Order and the unionist community need to do the same."
He says there's "massive relief" the march has been banned and "people don't
have to endure this area being saturated with police and military".
MacCionnaith claims there's increasing confidence in his community.
The Catholic unemployment rate is still twice as high as the average but the
situation is improving with some big local employers. There have been new
high-quality housing developments on the Garvaghy, Ashgrove, and Dungannon
Roads.
"Unionist leaders should be diverting their energies from Drumcree to
tackling the social and economic deprivation in their areas," MacCionnaith
says. Flags and bunting of orange and white - but this time no green -
bedeck the Garvaghy Road.
They're the colours of the Armagh team who are in the Ulster football final
and hoping to head to All-Ireland glory. "The only men in orange who will
ever be welcome on the Garvaghy Road," jokes a resident.
In the town centre, business is brisk. Brian Walker, chairman of the
regeneration agency Portadown 2000, says there is much less tension than
before. Many people aren't even sure of the date of Drumcree this year, he
says.
But still, the faithful few are assembling today. After the protest they
will walk up from the barricade to the Hillside Café, beside the church, for
refreshments. The placard above the door reads: "Here we stand, we can do no
other."
