Stand-Off at Drumcree
From the collection of
From the collection of
More conflict at the Orange parade.
A report for UTV Live on the stand-off at Drumcree near Portadown. Of all the contentious routes during the so-called Marching Season in Northern Ireland, the one through the Garvaghy Road is perhaps the most famous, due to protests and stand-offs in the mid-1990s. When the RUC prevented an Orange parade from returning from Drumcree church along the nationalist Garvaghy Road, it sparked an enormous protest as people flocked to join the face-off with the police over the course of three days.
The report shows that violence has broken out after 36 hours of protest. Jeffrey Donaldson, then of the Ulster Unionist Party, is interviewed for the report and accused the residents of Garvaghy Road of being intransigent and intolerant of tradition. Meanwhile, DUP leader Ian Paisley stands on a platform to address Orange Order members and demand the right to continue down the road.
Starting in 1993, UTV Live took over as Ulster Television's local news series, running a flagship programme each evening, with other bulletins throughout the day. In the 1990s it captured the unfolding story of the push towards a peace settlement in Northern Ireland, through all its twist and turns, which ended with the historic Good Friday Agreement in 1998.