ANALYSIS: Orange Order demands to walk Garvaghy Road opens up sectarian fault lines’

The insistence of the Orange Order on marching through the Catholic Garvaghy Road district reveals a sectarian fault line that has run through Irish society for centuries. While members of the order have been banned from the nationalist area of Portadown since 1998, tensions have continued to simmer under the surface for the past three decades. The open sore of loyal order parades, perceived by many nationalists to be motivated by sectarianism, has once again the potential to turn septic.The recent Orange Order backed High Court challenge, which resulted in the Parades Commission conceding procedural shortcomings in its decision-making process, has been turned into a battering ram to force a parade through an area it is not wanted.Unionists creating ‘nervousness’ on Garvaghy Road by ‘playi