Member's statement: Drumcree Dispute
Member's statement by Mr Jonathan Buckley on .
- MLA
- Mr Jonathan Buckley
- Party at the time
- Democratic Unionist Party
- Date
- 5 October 2026
- Type
- Member's statement
- Business
- Members' Statements
- Heading
- Drumcree Dispute
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5773919
Read the official Assembly record
Text
It is time that the House heard some facts. The scenes on the Garvaghy Road over the past week have been a blatant and triumphalist attempt to ramp up tensions in my home town of Portadown. Sinn Féin's act of supremacy and harassment, whereby it recklessly brought thousands of activists on to the streets of Portadown to break the law, has deliberately stoked tensions, intimidation and fears for local residents who were going about their everyday business. Let me be categoric: it was those actions that closed schools last week and that have resulted in local residents living in fear. They are a blatant distraction from Sinn Féin's abject failure in government and its embarrassing stance on open borders. At every turn, its actions are designed to cover up and distract. I have been deeply worried by the level of blatant sectarianism that we have heard. We were told that that had been consigned to the past, but the mask has well and truly slipped again. Sinn Féin president, Mary Lou McDonald's, once-proclaimed "unionist brothers and sisters" are now being referred to as "effers", "Bs" and the "Ku Klux Klan". Violent dissident republicans, pledged to the murder of police officers, have stood linked arm in arm with Sinn Féin and SDLP elected representatives, with everything from the wearing of balaclavas to the shouting of expletives. Contrast that with the Orange response, which has been lawful and dignified. There was a prayer vigil last night, at which people prayed for the residents of the Garvaghy Road. They prayed for Michelle O'Neill and Mary Lou McDonald. They prayed for peace and the rule of law. They prayed for the police and the judiciary. One thing that cannot go unsaid is that the mythical, so-called new Ireland, in which Sinn Féin and the SDLP told us that unionist culture would be respected and unionist identity acknowledged, lies buried dead in Portadown, broken on the backs of 35 Orangemen, some of them 80 years of age, standing peacefully waiting to walk for 14 minutes in silence. In the fullness of —
— time, only Sinn Féin will be able to decide whether that price was worth it.
363 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Assessment
Awaiting analysis
This record has not been analysed yet. It is not counted in any total until it has been assessed.
Disagree with this assessment?
Classifications can be challenged. A person reviews every challenge, and any change is recorded publicly above with its reason.