Report: The Guardian view on the Drumcree parade: ghosts from the past have brought Stormont to the brink | Editorial

The Guardian — Politics has reported on “Report: The Guardian view on the Drumcree parade: ghosts from the past have brought Stormont to the brink | Editorial,” presenting it as the central development in the source material available for this brief.

A reckless decision to authorise an Orange Order parade with a notorious history has deepened the political crisis in the Northern Ireland executive The last time that the Orange Order successfully marched from Drumcree parish church down the Garvaghy Road, a mainly Catholic part of Portadown, it required a British army presence and a lockdown of locals forced off their own streets. The report also notes that The 1997 parade was preceded by loyalist death threats and followed by nationalist riots, in which more than 160 people were injured. The lengthy track record of lethal violence and disorder associated with the march led the Parades Commission – established the following year as part of the peace process – to ban it. On Sunday, however, in scenes that rolled back the years in deeply unwelcome fashion, the old traumas and hostilities were recklessly allowed to resurface. Unfathomably, following a routine decision to renew the ban this year was challenged on procedural grounds, the commissioners reversed their ruling late last week and permitted a march to go ahead on a limited scale. The entirely predictable result was a tense standoff and a political crisis in Stormont, following protesters blocked the Garvaghy Road route until the early hours of Monday morning.

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