LATE ON FRIDAY evening, the penny finally dropped – that the parading distance from the Drumcree Church to the Garvaghy Road and back to the Orange Hall at Carleton Street in Portadown is too many steps too far.

Just hours after a protest at the Northern Ireland Office in Belfast, UK Secretary of State Chris Bryant banned the parade from walking a route that has been out of bounds for 28 years.

In giving permission for the march, the Parades Commission (that rules on these matters) failed to read the room. Its decision put everything on the line – the policing and political projects plus negotiated accommodations in the wider parading frame. As last week developed, so it became clear that the story was no longer just about the Garvaghy Road – that other disputes could be reopened.

It was PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher who asked Bryant to review the Commission’s ruling.

“I outlined in my letter to the Secretary of State that my current assessment was that all available, lawful and proportionate options to facilitate completion of the procession had been exhausted,” a statement from Boutcher read.

“Any remaining options would have required a substantial public order intervention that was not assessed to be proportionate, and which would have carried an unacceptable risk of serious injury, disorder and a wider contagion effect across Northern Ireland.”

A fortnight ago, a police source had given me a two-word summary of the above when he spoke the words “shit show”.

An unexpected stand-off

In the build up to the scheduled parade on 27 September, the PSNI planned for all scenarios. Additional police units arrived from Scotland (what is called mutual aid) and there were restrictions on leave. Given all the history, this was never going to be a Sunday picnic.

For weeks, my own view was this, that even if the........

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