Trouble-Free Drumcree 'Low Key'

More than a decade after the first post-Drumcree rioting resulted in the virtual shut-down of NI, with scores injured and many millions of pounds lost in policing and army operations and riot damages, this year's annual impasse on the Garvaghy Road passed off without incident - and with the smallest police presence to date. For the 12th year in a row, hundreds of Orange Order members who took part in the annual Battle of the Somme commemoration church service at Drumcree Church in Portadown were banned from returning along the contentious route through the mainly nationalist area. While Orange District Master Darryl Hewitt accused the Parades Commission of failing to sort out the impasse and claiming Garvaghy Road Residents have not lived up to their undertaking to talk about the issue, Sunday's march passed off without... [read full story]