Drumcree march standoff: protesters and Orange Order both vow to stay ‘as long as it takes’

As members of Orange Lodge No 1 gather and residents occupy Garvaghy Road, each side speaks of grievances that go back decades and centuries

Half a mile of countryside separates Drumcree parish church and Garvaghy Road. You can walk it in 15 minutes, listening to birdsong. The protesters gathered at each end, however, speak of grievances that go back decades and centuries to explain why a dispute once thought settled has returned to torment Northern Ireland.

Up on the hill at Drumcree this week, Paul, a 64-year-old Orangeman who declined to give his surname, said for too long he and his brethren had been denied the right to parade along a traditional route that would honour Protestant forefathers who fell at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690 and the Somme in 1916.