Once again events on an otherwise nondescript stretch of road in Portadown are likely to have an outsized impact on politics in Northern Ireland.

The Drumcree parade dispute, stirred into life and public consciousness after a near 30-year hiatus, has thrown the future of devolved government and power-sharing into doubt. 

The dispute began following a decision by the Parades Commission to permit a contentious Orange Order march down the nationalist Garvaghy Road on Sunday morning. This was followed by a further decision by the High Court to throw out an attempt to stop the parade. In response, Irish nationalism swung back into protest mode.

Sinn Féin activists were bussed in to augment the ranks of the local residents’ association, who are led by a former IRA operative Brendan McKenna – imprisoned for six years for his role in a bombing in Portadown in the 1980s and now affiliated with a dissident group opposed to the peace process.

At the time of writing, the march, which would consist of 35 Orangemen walking in silence, has been unable to proceed because of a human chain spanning the breadth of the road which Northern Ireland’s police service elected not to clear. 

The Police Service........

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