Portadown

Facts about Brendan McKenna (Brendan Mac Cionnaith)

Republicans Target Junior Orangemen Parading In A Protestant Area

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If ever the republican movement shot itself in the foot it happened Saturday, May 30, 1998, at Garvaghy Road, Portadown. A brutal, sustained attack on the R.U.C. by some several hundred republican rioters in which petrol bombs and blast bombs were thrown, rebounded on the attackers when national and international media reported that the reason for the disturbance had been opposition to a Junior Orange parade.

A parade of about a dozen boys, aged from eight to twelve, belonging to Parkmount Junior L.O.L. No.150 and headed by Portadown Defenders Flute Band provided the justification for I.R.A. supporters to cause mayhem on Garvaghy Road. The fact that the excuse for the attack involved a Junior Lodge which has been based in the Garvaghy Road area since the end of the Second World War made the savage attack all the more reprehensible. What possible justification could there have been for such an attack?

And it must not be forgotten that the attack on the R.U.C. by republican mobs began at three o'clock when the Junior Orangemen were in Bangor enjoying a day at the seaside with their parents and the members of 20 other Co. Armagh Junior Lodges. The Parkmount Lodge assembled in the morning a few hundred yards along Garvaghy Road in which is still a predominately Protestant part of the famous 'Walk' district in Portadown. Until republican ethnic cleansing began 25 years ago this part of Portadown was overwhelmingly Protestant but with a small Roman Catholic minority. It had always contained this minority and relationships between families of both traditions had been excellent. It was a tradition for the Parkmount Junior Lodge to meet at Castle Avenue corner on the morning of the excursion to Bangor, and then, headed by a band, parade to Carleton Street Orange Hall to join the other Portadown Lodges.

At one time Parkmount Junior Lodge had over 50 members but the movement of Protestant families out of the district has affected the organisations and the Junior Orange is no exception. There are about 14 boys in Parkmount Lodge and a dozen were on parade on may 30, along with the band. As they assembled in Garvaghy Road on the morning of the parade, about 50 republicans further up the road staged a noisy demonstration but were kept well away from the Orange boys by the police lines.

Rioting began at three o'clock in the afternoon and by the time the Junior Orange arrived back in Garvaghy Road for dispersal about six o'clock it was at its height. Police protected the Junior Orangemen and band from the missiles thrown by the republican rioters and only a few loyalist supporters retaliated by throwing stones back at the rioters - an action stamped on right away by responsible Orange and band officials. The rioting continued long after the Junior Orangemen and bandsmen had dispersed and returned to their homes and the small Protestant minority in Garvaghy Road experienced the full wrath of the republican majority in the aftermath of the rioting.

On Sunday, it was impossible for elderly Protestants living in Woodside estate in the heart of Garvaghy Road to get in or out of their homes. They were marooned in an estate in which there are now only about 30 Protestant houses - 10 years ago there were over 100 - and the vast majority of the Protestants are senior citizens. That weekend several of them left their homes in Woodside to live in mainly Protestant parts of Portadown - a further drip-drip in the erosion of Protestantism in this once loyal part of the town.

There is a Protestant enclave at the bottom of Garvaghy Road - Park Road, King Street and Whitten Close - consisting of some 60 families. Whitten Close, a lovely development of pensioners homes is on the fringe of the Peoples Park and on Sunday night republican rioters threw petrol bombs into the estate. But the householders, some of them in their 80's steadfastly refused to leave, and the Protestant and loyalist population of Portadown are determined that this last remaining enclave will not be eliminated. The Park Road, King Street enclave is the equivalent of the Fountain in Londonderry. It is the one bastion of Protestantism in this part of Portadown and republicans would love to drive the families out as this would mean they would control all of that part of the town which lies north of the Northway motorway and the Belfast-Dublin railway.

Republican apologists, including Brendan McKenna, tried to throw the blame for the disgusting violence on the R.U.C. and on the Junior Orange but it didn't fool anyone and in fact the action resulted in a wave of revulsion among decent Roman Catholics as well as Protestants.

The police showed admirable qualities as they defended the Junior Orange parade and certainly did not over-react in the face of vicious attacks. But the residents of Park Road, King Street and Whitten Close are entitled to maximum protection against the sinister attempt by republicans to drive them from the district. That must not be allowed to happen and vigorous security measures including arrests and prosecutions must be used to bring this campaign to an end and allow all the law-abiding people of Garvaghy Road, Protestant and Roman Catholic to live in peace and harmony with one another.

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