The Drumcree Orange Parade

The July anniversary church parade to Drumcree is the oldest Orange parade in the entire world a fact, which makes the Orangemen of Portadown District justly proud. The first Orange parade to Drumcree Parish Church took place in 1807 a mere decade after the formation of the Orange institution a few miles down the road in Loughgall.

Religious services were an important aspect of Orange culture and heritage and reflected the determination to uphold the Protestant reformation and the British way of life encompassing sovereign and country. Being the mother church of Portadown it came as no surprise therefore that the Orangemen of Portadown chose Drumcree to give thanks to Almighty God for their deliverance from tyranny and arbitrary power by king William Ill, Prince of Orange.

Since 1795, Drumcree Parish has had a long association with the cause of Orangeism - Faith, Liberty and Freedom. Indeed many of the men of the parish rallied to the aid of Dan Winter when he came under sectarian attack from the inappropriately named 'Defenders' at the Battle of the Diamond on 21 September 1795

One of the first ministers to join the order was the Reverend George Maunsil, Rector of Drumcree, and a close friend of the great Orange leader Lt-Col. William Blacker. It was William's father the Reverend Stewart Blacker, also an Orangeman, who preached the first ever sermon to the assembled brethren in 1807.

For almost 200 years, the Orangemen of Portadown have paraded with dignity to and from the mother church at Drumcree causing or giving no offence. Throughout those years they have come under attack from stone throwers and petrol bombers and have had to endure spitting taunts and name-calling. Yet they have never retaliated and have walked with heads held high and with dignity intact along the Garvaghy Road and home to Carleton Street. All the Orangemen of Portadown ask is that they be treated with tolerance and respect by their neighbours. In Northern Ireland, there is room for two traditions and room for mutual respect between two communities.

Successive generations of Portadown Orangemen have attended divine worship at Drumcree Parish Church. The parade route, the most direct and only one available at the time was traditionally through Obins Street on the outward leg of the journey and via 'The Walk' or the Garvaghy Road as it later became known, on the return leg.

It was only with the advent of the so-called 'Troubles' and subsequent demographic changes in the Obins Street / Garvaghy Road area that there was some opposition to the annual Orange parades. Always conscious of the feelings of the local residents Portadown District has been at pains to avoid confrontation and to conduct themselves with the utmost decorum as befitting a religious organisation parading to and from divine worship.

Behind Orange Lines

Documentary on the Orange Order and the stand off at Drumcree

Click on the image