Why the Garvaghy Road crisis matters for both Britain and Ireland

‘Reviving the Garvaghy Road route for an Orange Order parade after 28 years, when it was a focal point of lethal violence back in the 1990s, looks like a bid to take us backwards too’

Editorial / 25 September 2026 Ending outsourcing is key to rebuilding the social state 25 September 2026 Editorial / 24 September 2026 Burnham must turn words into action without delay 24 September 2026 Editorial / 23 September 2026 The threat to peace and democracy comes from Washington, not Moscow 23 September 2026 Editorial / 22 September 2026 Xi meets Trump – two visions collide 22 September 2026 Editorial / 21 September 2026 The link between war, energy prices and Britain’s cost-of-living crisis 21 September 2026 Editorial / 20 September 2026 Liberal dilemmas as the ruling class seeks a new vehicle for fragmented Britain 20 September 2026 Editorial / 18 September 2026 Tom Watson, Palantir and post-Starmer Labour — which side are they on? 18 September 2026 THE showdown between the Orange Order and protesters on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown is not some sectarian tiff, irrelevant on this side of the Irish Sea.

The decision to allow the Order to march through the predominantly nationalist area for the first time in decades is a provocation.

The purpose of the march is supremacist — a bid to assert the mastery of the unionist and Protestant community over Irish republicans and Catholics.

Marching through a nationalist area is intended to intimidate the people who live there, and those mobilising against it are predominantly locals concerned to defend their community — a stand which must resonate as we approach the 90th anniversary of the Battle of Cable Street, when local Jews, communists and socialists of the East End barred the streets to Oswald Mosley’s Blackshirts.

The political gulf between the sides is reflected too in a banner carried by residents: “From Gaza to Garvaghy Road, resist occupation and fascism.” The international sympathies on display tell us something about the politics of the two sides.

Procedural errors saw Northern Ireland’s Parades Commission’s original decision to stop the march proceeding down the Garvaghy Road thrown out; cock-up as well as conspiracy may have brought things to this pass.

But the confrontation takes place in a context which gives it wider significance.

The legal fight to reassert the Orange Order’s right to menace people in their homes comes after a summer that saw appalling racist violence erupt in Belfast — with masked protesters torching vehicles and setting fire to the homes of black and ethnic minority residents.

That violence was overwhelmingly concentrated in Loyalist areas, with wide suspicion — publicly voiced by Sinn Fein politicians — of paramilitary involvement or at least “green-lighting” of the outburst of racist terror.

Recent weeks have seen masked, black-clad thugs take to the streets of Dover and Portsmouth in the cause of anti-immigrant hatred.

There is no need to posit a direct connection to the Loyalist organisations that still exercise significant influence on some communities in Ireland to note that, in an era of instant communication via tech platforms controlled by race-war advocates like Elon Musk, the example set by an organised far right in one place will be imitated elsewhere.

Nor do we have to imagine that the pared-down march planned — the Orange Order was granted permission only for a reduced-size silent march, with no bands — had any view to violence like that seen in Belfast. Rather, it is about the steady normalisation of hate in public which we see in Britain as well as Ireland.

The furious reaction from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald and Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill joining the locals blocking the road follows years of seeking to derail and delegitimise an administration headed by Irish republicans, which included holding off O’Neill’s appointment for two years by refusing to nominate a DUP deputy prime minister, power-sharing being a requirement under the Good Friday Agreement.

The very existence of that Sinn Fein-led government is a sign that times have changed in ways the British government refuses to recognise. Andy Burnham’s insistence that any poll on Irish reunification is “off the table,” following Keir Starmer’s insistence that he would campaign for continuing partition in such a poll (which would have violated the Good Friday Agreement’s stipulation that the British government remain neutral), show Labour is stuck in the past.

Reviving the Garvaghy Road route for an Orange Order parade after 28 years, when it was a focal point of lethal violence back in the 1990s, looks like a bid to take us backwards too.

Whatever lay behind the strange decision to grant permission for this march, the feelings of the local community and the political crisis it has caused show it was wrong. It must now be overturned.

Editorial / 8 September 2026 Mosley’s heirs must be confronted 8 September 2026 Features / 30 October 2025 Knowledge, unity, progress are the recipe for a united Ireland 30 October 2025 A new group within the NEU is preparing the labour movement for a conversation on Irish unity by arguing that true liberation must be rooted in working-class solidarity and anti-sectarianism, writes ROBERT POOLE

Ireland / 23 October 2025 A President for the people: Why Sinn Fein supports Catherine Connolly 23 October 2025 The independent TD’s campaign has put important issues like Irish reunification and military neutrality at the heart of the political conversation, argues SEAN MacBRADAIGH