They still gather every Sunday.
A small, ever-diminishing group of men, all members of the Orange Order, persist each week in drawing attention to their plight.
It is more than 24 years since the local district was last able to complete its once-traditional church parade via the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road back into Portadown in Co Armagh, the county where the Order was born.
Their stand-off with local residents once had the potential to bring Northern Ireland to a virtual standstill, with thousands of families fleeing into the South or abroad to avoid the July Twelfth fortnight.
Now, however, nature has recaptured the fields and drains where once trenches, barbed wire and bollards separated Orange brethren and their supporters from the security forces.
Famously it was where two men later to become first ministers, David Trimble and Ian Paisley, now both deceased joined and held their hands high as the march finished near the Orange Order’s district offices in Carleton Street.
But that was the last time the march happened, in 1998, and the standard flags and regalia of the Portadown District Lodge still remain within the Church of Ireland church, where they will stay says the district master until the impasse is resolved.
In stark contrast to previous years, the annual walk from the church to police lines at a nearby bridge was almost entirely ignored by the media this year
Two district masters, Harold Gracey and Darryl Hewitt have also passed on since the last parade but Portadown man Nigel Dawson has taken up the cudgels and, with his district, is determined to put Drumcree back on the agenda in time for the 25th anniversary next year.
The district lodge has already formally requested a meeting with Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Heaton-Harris and also intends to meet political parties and other organisations.
In stark contrast to previous years, the annual walk from the church to police lines at a nearby bridge was almost entirely ignored by the media this year.
Dawson, however, insists: “It should be of concern to the media and wider population that rights that are enjoyed in other parts of the United Kingdom have had restrictions placed upon them here. The media should be highlighting and reporting on this and asking questions of our politicians both locally and in Westminster.”
In talks stretching back years with the Parades Commission, which has also undergone several personnel changes through the years, the Orange side has agreed to several compromises — to reduce the numbers taking part in the return parade, the at which time it takes place and form it takes, without bands.
Yet the commission has found it impossible to persuade the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition to return to the negotiating table. It continues to insist there is only one issue: the parade’s route.
Any attempt to facilitate an Orange march along Garvaghy Road would bring to the fore issues, anxieties and fears that the residents believe should be allowed to remain in the past, they have told the commission.
And they argue past attempts at dialogue have been “futile and disingenuous” because it is the route of the parade which is the main bone of contention and the community has “moved on”.
The most recent commission “determination”, however, recognised the issue has not gone away by reiterating the need for a solution — and noting it is the residents rather than the Orange Order that is preventing this from happening.
A spokesperson said: “The commission continues to encourage all parties to this parading dispute to enter dialogue to achieve an accommodation which reflects the needs of the local communities [but we do not] have the statutory power to force parties into dialogue or mediation.”
Mr Dawson, meanwhile, has argued: “Whilst the commission has tweaked determinations following our meetings it is obliged to do much more than that and must now step up to the mark. It is well documented which party is working to seek a resolution and which is refusing.”
The weekly Sunday protests were suspended several times during the Covid-19 pandemic and the mourning period following the death of the Queen but have returned and at one stage were expanded to twice a week.
It is relatively rare for more than one or two women to attend but officers from the Grand Lodge and from lodges across the North regularly join the ranks.
“It remains a very real issue in our town,” says Dawson who also argues it should be given the same level of attention by politicians as the cost-of-living crisis.
We hear a lot about shared space and identity, it is time for more than words
— Orangeman Nigel Dawson
“It should be high on their agenda along with the current cost-of-living crisis. No doubt the political inbox is full of important issues but the rights of its citizens, the famous shared space and the parity of esteem seem to have slipped and need to be brought back to the fore.
“The province can’t fully move on until all citizens enjoy civil and equal rights on many aspects of life including parades. We hear a lot about shared space and identity, it is time for more than words,” adds the senior Orange member who was deputy to both Gracey and Hewitt.
Many lodge members were lost to the pandemic but numbers have gone up again over the last year, to about 830 — one of the largest districts in the North.
At one stage Orange members would have filled several of the lay positions in the church on the hill, but this is also no longer the case.
