It didn't all fit in!! - Part II

Catholic children returning from what was known locally as "the Canon's trip", a day's excursion organised by the local parish priest were forced to run a gauntlet of abuse on July 16th 1935 as hundreds of Orange supporters assembled to harangue and abuse them. A number of women who had gathered at the railway station to meet the children on their return from the trip were assaulted. The actions of the loyalists and the total indifference of the RUC created much resentment among the Catholic population of the town.

That resentment, already fuelled by the Orange marches through Obins Street a few days beforehand, boiled over the following day into a full scale riot which was sparked off when 3 RUC men were seen to assault a man at the corner of Park Road and Obins Street. When several baton charges failed to disperse the Nationalist crowd, the RUC, under the command of a County Inspector Dudgeon, then opened fire. 56 year old Hugh Faloon, who was standing at the window of his upstairs bedroom of his home in Obins Street was fatally wounded and died two days later. The volleys of shots dispersed the crowd and many fled into their homes, where they were followed by the RUC riot squads, beaten and then arrested.

Orangemen were stoned while passing through Obins Street on July 12th 1937. Some Orangemen were reported to have been injured, but no other incidents are said to have taken place.

During the Second World War, no Orange Marches took place in the Six Counties and, for the first time since the establishment of the Orange Order, Portadown experienced a decade relatively free from civil and sectarian strife.

Eight Catholics were prosecuted as a result of what appeared to be a peaceful protest during an Orange parade in Obins Street on July 13 1950. J. and M. Creaney, P. Shevlin, M. Hughes, R. O'Connor, M. Grimley, J. Creaney and T. Kelly were defended by Mr. H. McParland (instructed by Senator J. G. Lennon, Armagh).

Mr. McParland stressed that the defendants had merely attempted to walk across the street where they lived while an Orange Parade was passing. He pointed out that there was an alternative route for the parade and if the alternative route was taken by the marchers it would prevent trouble in the future. Mr. Mc Parland said that " His Worship might even intimate that was a reasonable suggestion on the part of the defendants .... In a number of other towns the police diplomatically arranged that the processions do not go through certain areas. "

Mr. McParland said that the route through Obins Street was an abnormal one and there was a suggestion of "trailing of coats" in the use of this route.

Head Constable Stansfield, when being questioned by Mr. Mc Parland, admitted that at least one of the bands was playing party tunes and that the daughter of one of the defendants had been assaulted by Orangemen in the parade. When, under further cross examination, the Head Constable admitted that the local Nationalist accordion band was confined to parading in Obins Street, defence counsel asked him did he not think that, in the interests of peace, the Orangemen should be confined to their own areas, Stansfield replied, "It is not given to me to think ... I am here to obey orders!"

Four of the defendants were found guilty and fined. Despite Stansfield's admission in court regarding the assault, no Orangemen were prosecuted.

Head Constable Stansfield was a central figure in another court case in 1954 which arose out of an incident when a car was deliberately driven through a Nationalist procession headed by St. Patrick's Band in Obins Street. A young woman was charged with "indecent conduct". Stansfield said that he went to break up a crowd of people who were hammering on the car when the young woman ran towards him. "I put up my clenched fist with the gloves in it and she ran her face right into my knuckle", he stated.

Defence counsel suggested that the police hadn't made adequate traffic arrangements, and pointed out that the Nationalist band seemed to have a most unfortunate history of similar incidents - a lorry drove through it in 1948 seriously injuring a number of band members and supporters; on another occasion a bus drove through it; and in August 1952 a motorcycle crashed into it. (Quite remarkable given that the band was always confined by the RUC to parading along a 600 yard long stretch of one street!)

Nevertheless the law took its course and the young woman was convicted on an amended charge of disorderly behaviour - assaulting a policeman's fist with her face would not have looked right on a charge sheet.

During the 1950's and 1960's, local residents generally ignored the Orange Marches through the Nationalist areas of the town at the request of the local Catholic clergy. Some local people continued to attempt to protest at these annual provocative displays, but no major incidents occurred.

The 1960's also saw the commencement of a major housing redevelopment programme in the town. Much of the older housing stock, particularly in Curran St., John St., Mary St., River Lane, etc., was demolished and the new housing estates of Garvaghy Park, Churchill Park and Ballyoran Park were built along the Garvaghy Road. With the advent of "the Troubles" the sectarian divide in housing became even more pronounced. This led to a situation along the Garvaghy Road which even the Orange Order admits to in "The Orange Citadel", an official history of Portadown Orangeism.

"Where once Orangemen had walked along the Garvaghy Road to the gaze of no-one, they now walked past housing estates which were almost exclusively Roman Catholic and who resented the parade."

Indeed, that same history also reveals that "during the 1970's and early 1980's repeated attempts were made by the Roman Catholics of Obins Street and Garvaghy Road to prevent Orange parades from walking through these districts".

With the commencement of the Civil Rights Campaign in the late Sixties, attention again began to focus locally on the Orange marches. July 14th 1969 saw a crowd of 400 - 500 members of the Black Preceptory and their supporters lay siege to a public house in Woodhouse Street, where a young man from the Obins Street area was being held by the RUC. Fighting had broken out while the Black parade was going through Obins Street and the RUC had bundled the young man into the pub to save him from the mob. He was later charged with assaulting one of his attackers.

As the Civil Rights campaign continued, an attempt by the People's Democracy to hold a meeting in Portadown town centre in March 1970 led to a violent Loyalist reaction. Hundreds of Loyalists gathered to oppose and disrupt the meeting, despite the presence of a large number of RUC and British Army personnel.

Many Nationalists fled from Portadown in advance of the Drumcree and other Orange parades in July 1971. The Drumcree parade through Obins Street on Sunday July 4th saw a large number of the recently disbanded "B" Specials lead over 1,000 Orangemen through the area. The Nationalist areas were completely saturated by hundreds of RUC and British troops, in order to prevent any opposition to the marches.

All roads into Portadown were completely cut off by Loyalists and the Obins Street area was the subject of continuous assault by Loyalist mobs from Sunday March 26th until Wednesday 29th March 1972 after the suspension of the Stormont Government. In response, the extreme Loyalist grouping, the Ulster Vanguard Movement of which David Trimble was Deputy Leader, had called for a forty-eight hour strike. In the town centre, all known Catholic- owned businesses were wrecked and looted, and scores of Catholic families living in Protestant areas were intimidated and forced out of their homes.

The Portadown Resistance Committee, which had organised the defence of the town's Nationalist areas during the Loyalist attacks, made an appeal in April calling on the authorities to reroute the July parades and condemned those who issued hypocritical statements about community relations while ignoring the plight of the small Nationalist community which was in a constant state of siege.

At the start of July, the UDA set up "no-go" areas around the town. Within hours of these UDA controlled areas being established, a 47 year old Catholic disappeared. The tortured and mutilated body of Felix Hughes was found submerged in a drain leading to the River Bann four weeks later.

When further pleas for the rerouting of the Orange marches were ignored, local people began to erect barricades all along Obins Street on Saturday 8th July in an attempt to prevent the first of those marches taking place the following day.

On Sunday 9th, a massive force of British troops, including Paratroopers, moved into the area to clear the route for the Orangemen. Scores of CS gas canisters and baton rounds were fired at local people in order to quell opposition to the march. The RUC, who moved into the area behind the troops, smashed their way into homes along Obins Street, badly beating up the occupants.

Having gained control of the area, the RUC and British Army then compounded the sectarian nature of their vicious assault on the local Catholic community by permitting a large contingent of masked and uniformed members of the UDA and UVF to parade and drill in Obins Street. These hooded Loyalist terrorists then lined both sides of the street and saluted as several hundred Orangemen marched through the district on their way to Drumcree. The same contingent of Loyalist terrorists again accompanied the Orangemen on their return from Drumcree along the Garvaghy Road, where another massive British Army deployment effectively suppressed any opposition from the Nationalist residents.

The British Army and RUC actions were carried out at a time when a bipartisan ceasefire was in operation between the IRA and the British, and were classed by the Republican leadership as a severe breach of the truce agreement which eventually totally disintegrated in the Lenadoon area of Belfast later that evening.

Similar oppressive British Army and RUC presences also ensured no opposition to the Orange marches through the area on the July 12th and 13th. Within hours of the 12th parade taking place, a Catholic pub owner Jack McCabe and one of his customers, William Cochrane, were shot dead by an off-duty RUC man in Portadown town centre. A Protestant youth, Paul Beattie, was also shot dead that morning on the Garvaghy Road.

The SDLP presented a dossier detailing the intimidation of Catholic families in Portadown to the British Secretary of State at the beginning of 1973 and, at the end of June, Seamus Mallon again called for the rerouting of Orange Parades away from the Nationalist areas of the town. Obins Street and the Garvaghy Road were swamped by British Army and RUC personnel in order to allow the Oranges marches to go ahead against the wishes of the residents of the area.

An extract from an article in the Sunday Observer newspaper which appeared in July 1974 shows an outsiders view of the Orange parades in Portadown that year,

"This column heads - it's not possible - down through the underpass and into the Catholic ghetto. But it is possible. Superintendent Rogers, head of the Portadown police, gave his permission. The British Army..... cover the parade as it goes, drumming and yelling, to show the Papists who's master in town."

The Portadown News, a local newspaper which was Unionist in orientation, carried another description of what an Orange parade to Drumcree entailed for the town's Catholic population in July 1975,

" A visitor to the town could have been excused if he had been under the impression that a fair proportion of the British Army stationed in Ulster had been drafted into the town, and an equally large proportion of strength of the Royal Ulster Constabulary.
"Right from the moment the procession of 1,000 men and three bands entered Woodhouse Street, there was an atmosphere of a town under siege. Soldiers armed with rifles, and officers equipped with high powered binoculars thronged the railway bridge. Scores of policemen flanked the entrance to the station itself....
"Inside Obins Street, it was a case of troops and police all the way to Corcrain with Saracens (armoured personnel carriers) and land-rovers in profusion and soldiers also prowling around with fierce-looking Alsatian dogs. As well as this, red-capped military policemen, green-clad Women's Army, and of course Women's RUC were also to the fore, not to mention scores of plain clothes policemen and soldiers. All the time a helicopter whirred overhead, swooping down at times to survey the scene.
"... Security measures from the top of Garvaghy Park to Parkmount were just as stringent as those on the outward parade. Saracens and soldiers crowded the grassy slopes of the Ballyoran Park estate, and the entrance to Garvaghy Park. It was the same at Churchill Park where scores of police watched the perimeter and troops were on patrol in the alleyways".

All this for a "church parade" which the Orange Order, even today, maintains has never caused controversy!

Given such extreme levels of saturation of the Nationalist areas of Obins Street and the Garvaghy Road by the British Army and the RUC, any protests against the unwelcome Orange Marches were effectively silenced. It should also be stressed that what amounted to the imposition of martial law and curfew within these areas lasted for up to a full week at a time, and not just for the length of time it took a parade to pass through.

Stranger still, given this high level military operation every year to negate Nationalist protest, was the apparent ease with which two off-duty members of the UDR were able to drive into Obins Street, only hours before the 12th July parade went through the area in 1977. Both men fired their legally-held, UDR issue weapons into a number of houses along the street and then escaped. They were only apprehended later when the car in which they travelling crashed into a British Army Saracen. At their subsequent trial, the Officer Commanding of the local UDR Battalion based at Mahon Barracks in Portadown told the court that both men were outstanding and exemplary soldiers whom he would be proud to have back in the Regiment.

For the next few years, the "security presence" aimed at preventing any protests against the parades was maintained during July. This presence in turn led to minor outbreaks of rioting between local Nationalist youths and RUC/British Army, usually on the eve of a march.

Barricades were erected, plastic baton rounds and at least five shots were fired during serious clashes between Nationalists and the RUC on July 13th 1981. The rioting, which lasted for several hours, broke out after the Orange Order had paraded through Obins Street four times that day. A number of young men were subsequently arrested and charged by the RUC.

At least 100 local residents took part in a peaceful protest against the marches the following day, July 14, when an estimated 1,500 members of the Royal Black Preceptories marched through Obins Street. A solid wall of RUC men lined the footpath along Parkside Flats where the protest was held.

Flag waving loyalists were allowed to congregate at the Railway Bridge entrance to the Nationalist area and hurl threats and abuse at local people. At the trial of those arrested for the July 13th riots, a solicitor defending the young men said that what had happened in Obins Street was the inevitable consequence of allowing Orange parades to take place there.

The Resident Magistrate, Mrs. Sarah Creanor, said that she sympathised with the defence argument that Orange parades were an unnecessary provocation, and agreed that these parades should not be allowed into the area.

Protests against the marches in Obins Street and the Garvaghy Road continued. Despite the presence of the RUC and British troops in 1983, Orange marchers broke ranks in Obins Street and attacked local people at the bottom of Obins Drive. Several local residents had to receive medical attention after being assaulted by the marchers who used ceremonial swords and pikes to carry out the assaults. A serving member of the UDR was identified by locals as being the ringleader of the attack. Claims were afterwards made that there had been obvious collusion between the RUC and the Orange assailants.

On the 17th March 1985, the local Nationalist St. Patrick's accordion band had intended to hold a parade from Obins Street to the Garvaghy Road. Despite their opposition to this parade in previous years, the RUC to the surprise of many locals gave the band permission for the St. Patrick's Day parade including that portion of the route along Park Road.

However, Loyalists led by several Unionist councillors, including the then Mayor of Craigavon, Arnold Hatch, and Cllr Gladys McCullough, threatened to hold a counter-demonstration along the route of the parade. On Sunday morning, 17th March, a crowd of flag waving Loyalists gathered in the Park Road area with Unionist members of the Borough Council, supposedly to hold a "prayer meeting". As the band left Obins Street a large force of RUC personnel immediately moved in to block its' path and senior RUC officers told the organisers that the parade could not proceed as previously agreed. Attempting to take an alternative route, the band was again blocked by the RUC. The band then left to go to a major St. Patrick's Day celebration in County Tyrone by bus.

That evening, on its return from Tyrone the band attempted to parade again along the route agreed with the RUC several weeks beforehand. There was no Loyalist protest that evening. In response the RUC attacked the band members and its' followers, at one stage driving their armoured landrovers through the ranks of the band (which included young children) and onlookers in a deliberate attempt to injure them and force them of the streets.

The reaction of Nationalists was one of outrage and anger. The RUC were shown to be using extreme force to defend the right of the Loyal Orders to parade along very contentious routes while it used force to prevent Nationalists parading on what was a natural and only slightly contentious route. The result of St. Patrick's Day was to galvanise Nationalist opposition to the July Parades. Residents of Obins St. and the Garvaghy Road disrupted a meeting of Craigavon Borough Council in protest at the action of the Mayor and other Unionist councillors. Nationalist politicians, from North and South of the border, made their opposition to the July parades known to the RUC and the British Secretary of State, Douglas Hurd.

As July approached, it was clear that the Nationalist community was determined to see an end to these annual triumphalist rituals in Obins Street and the Garvaghy Road.

On July 5th, it was announced that the 12th and 13th parades through the Nationalist district would be rerouted, but the Drumcree parade would be permitted to continue along Obins Street and the Garvaghy Road on July 7th. Local Nationalist residents held a meeting on the 6th at which they reiterated their demand for the rerouting of all the parades, and announced their intention to hold a peaceful demonstration in Obins Street.

On Sunday 7th, at around 9.30 am residents attempted to hold a peaceful sit- down protest in Obins St. in a last minute effort to halt the parade. As the media looked on, "the RUC waded into the protesters, batoning them without provocation" was how one foreign journalist described the scene. A number were arrested and almost twenty people seriously injured by the RUC, including one man who was beaten unconscious and then dragged along the street. Hand to hand fighting then commenced but, within 10 minutes, hundreds of RUC men in full riot gear had dispersed the protest and cleared the way for the 2,000 Orangemen, led by Unionist M.P.s, Harold McCusker and Rev. Martin Smyth. Among the marchers was the Belfast politician, George Seawright, who openly taunted and gestured at local people in a blatant sectarian manner.

On the return along Garvaghy Road, hundreds of RUC men in riot gear, backed up by troops, sealed off the entire length of roadway, refusing access to any but the Orangemen. Sinn Fein and SDLP representatives, as well as several local Catholic priests, who witnessed the RUC's assault on local people in Obins Street spoke of people's anger and frustration, and again demanded that all such parades be rerouted.

Among those who came to the town to witness the plight of the beleaguered Nationalist community was Mrs. Eunice Schriver, a sister of the assassinated American President, John F. Kennedy.

On the 12th and 13th, Orangemen and their supporters rioted in the town centre for several hours after those parades were rerouted.

On Easter Sunday, 1986 a ban was announced on an Apprentice Boys March due to take place the following day. From around 9.00 pm. on Sunday, hundreds of British troops and RUC men saturated the Garvaghy Road, apparently to enforce the ban. At 11.00 pm, cars with loudspeakers toured the town calling on Loyalists to assemble in the town centre in order to break the ban. Shortly before midnight, the British Army and RUC presence was withdrawn from the Garvaghy Road without explanation and returned to barracks, despite the fact that thousands of Loyalists were gathered in the town centre. Over an hour later, approximately 3-4,000 Loyalists, led by Unionist politicians, including Ian Paisley, began to march along the Garvaghy Road.

Eye-witnesses stated that many of the marchers, who included known members of the RUC and UDR, openly carried firearms. Several RUC landrovers also accompanied the illegal march. As the marchers commenced to attack and wreck Nationalist homes along the road, many local people attempted to defend their homes and families against the Loyalist invasion. The RUC made no effort to prevent the attacks, turning instead upon the Nationalists. Intense fighting broke out between local residents and the RUC, which lasted for several hours, and barricades were erected to prevent the RUC/Loyalists from re-entering the area.

Many people, including local clergy and leading Nationalist representatives, asked how such a march could take place given the large security presence in the area earlier. In a statement issued in the aftermath of that Ku Klux Klan-like march during the hours of darkness, local Catholic clergy said,

"The basic question raised by last night's display is who controls Portadown - local bully boys or a professional, impartial force."

Sinn Fein's Gerry Adams said the fact that no action had been taken to prevent the illegal march demonstrated "more evidence of the untrustworthiness of the RUC."

The SDLP's Seamus Mallon asked searchingly if it was a case of the Chief Constable or "sections within the RUC who are making the ultimate decisions?" Indeed, it was widely believed at the time that the RUC in Portadown had mutinied and had refused to enforce the ban, or to prevent the illegal march taking place. No Loyalists were ever prosecuted for participating in the illegal parade or the attacks upon Catholic homes.

Later, on Monday Loyalists went on the rampage in the town centre looting and wrecking shops and businesses, forcing the RUC to disperse them with plastic baton rounds. A Loyalist youth from Lurgan, Keith White, was fatally wounded by a baton round and died later in hospital.

In the run-up to the July parades, the Parade Action Committee and the Ulster Clubs headed by leading Portadown Orangeman, Alan Wright, threatened major disruption if the Orange parades were prevented from going through Obins Street and Garvaghy Road.

Alan Wright, along with the DUP's Peter Robinson, and Markethill man, Noel Little, (later to be arrested in Paris for offenses linked with alleged loyalist/ South African gunrunning activities) were soon to lead a parade of the Ulster Resistance movement through Portadown. Ulster Resistance was yet another shadowy loyalist paramilitary grouping. The activities of the Parades Action Committee and the Ulster Clubs led to a concerted campaign of intimidation and terror throughout June. Catholic homes and Church owned property came under constant attack. Shots were fired at local people from a car travelling along the Garvaghy Road. An Ulster Clubs' parade on June 16 resulted in several Catholic owned shops being wrecked and St. Patrick's Hall, a Catholic social club in Thomas St. was burned to the ground by the marchers. The Fire Brigade was prevented from going near the blaze for over half an hour and the RUC made no attempt to intervene. On the afternoon of Tuesday 16th, the town centre and many roads leading into the town were blocked by hijacked vehicles in a show of loyalist strength, and all shops were forced to close. Two further midnight marches, organised by the Ulster Clubs and the Parade Action Committee took place in the town on Thursday 19th and Tuesday 24th June. Throughout this whole period the RUC stood back as the local Catholic community was placed under a state of constant siege.

An Irish News editorial of Saturday July 5th condemned the planned Orange marches through the nationalist areas of Portadown, stating,

"It is the simple and stark fact that, once again, members of the Nationalist community of Portadown are to be treated as second class citizens in their own town.....
"It is difficult for those fortunate enough to live in more sophisticated communities to understand and appreciate the deep sense of fear, outrage and humiliation that marks these annual incursions into the little streets of this little town....
"It is no longer relevant to speak of traditional routes and traditional marches as if tradition validated terrorism and intimidation. There is no longer any reason for remaining fixed in a frozen bigotry that prides itself on ignoring change in demographic and geographic realities."

On Sunday 6th July, a massive concentration of RUC and British Army were deployed in Obins Street and the Garvaghy Road to suppress Nationalist protests against the Orange march to Drumcree. 3,000 troops and 1,000 extra RUC personnel had been drafted into the town. Prominent civil liberties activists from Ireland and abroad had been invited to Portadown by the local Sinn Fein councillor, Brian McCann. A protest by Nationalists in Obins Street was the subject of an RUC banning order and prevented from even taking place. Over 300 people had tried to assemble at Parkside flats in Obins Street for the protest only to be faced with the total saturation of the district by the RUC. Another protest on the Garvaghy Road by the People Against Injustice Group was forcibly broken up to make way for the Orangemen. The Portadown Times described clashes between the RUC and local Garvaghy residents as "a pitched battle". The Irish News reported how St. John's Catholic Church was attacked by Orangemen and their supporters while Mass was in progress and a Catholic priest assaulted at the bottom end of Obins St. Father Patrick Thornton received cuts and a swollen eye.

Two of the North's main newspapers were quite similar in their editorial comments regarding the Orange marches through Catholic areas of Portadown:

The Belfast Telegraph - "A better route must be found that will give loyalists the opportunity to parade their colours where they are welcome".
The Irish News - "In the long term, the best contribution police can make in the marching season is to make clear that, in future, parades will be confined to areas where they are not calculated to cause offence."

Again the 12th and 13th Orange and Black parades through the area were the subject of rerouting of rerouting orders away from Obins Street.

It was at this time the British Government and the RUC reached one of the most inexplicable decisions ever taken surrounding Orange marches in the town. Having decided that such marches would no longer be allowed to proceed through Obins Street, many Nationalists believed the authorities would also take the next logical step - reroute the Orangemen away from the Garvaghy Road.

However, logic would seem to have been in short supply. Far from rerouting the contentious Garvaghy Road march, the Orange Order was now told by the RUC that they could now have a second march along this route on July 12th.

Alan Wright described the decision as a "victory" and admitted that he was "overjoyed". John Hume denounced the Garvaghy march as "a boost for the bully boys and cudgel carriers,"

This incensed Nationalists. What the RUC were doing was making a deal with the Orange Order that, if they accepted the rerouting of all marches away from Obins St., the RUC would permit the Order to have a second, and completely new, march along the Garvaghy Road, where the bulk of the town's Catholic Community lived.

On Friday 11th July, hundreds of loyalists attempted to force their way into Obins Avenue and Obins Drive after they were incited to do so following a speech by the extremist politician, George Seawright at an Eleventh Night bonfire in nearby Edgarstown. An English reporter described the scene in Obins Drive,
"Flames and smoke billow in the air. Petrol bombs, flares and bricks come flying over the fence hitting the roofs of pensioners houses. Many residents are out on the street."

This violent onslaught on the area, during which at least two blast bombs were also thrown, lasted for over an hour before the RUC arrived on the scene. In predictable fashion, the RUC attacked local residents and provoked a riot with Nationalists from the Garvaghy Road who were trying to make their way into Obins Street to assist locals defending their homes from the loyalist mobs.

On the 12th morning, Nationalists on the Garvaghy Road were once more assaulted and beaten by baton wielding RUC men, as the Orangemen held their first ever Twelfth parade along the road.

Nevertheless, even this underhand deal made between the RUC and the Orange Order, against the wishes of the local community and without their consultation, did not satisfy the more extreme elements within the Orange and Black Institutions. Besashed extremists and their supporters went on the rampage in the town centre.

During the next twelve months nationalists redoubled their rerouting campaign. It was now clear, even to the RUC, that Orange marches through Obins St. were completely out of the question, given the amount of international publicity the issue was beginning to generate.

In July 1987, it was announced that the Drumcree parade would be completely rerouted from Obins St. Nationalist protest was then focused solely on the Garvaghy Road and hundreds of local people gathered there from early on Sunday morning to take part in a sit-down protest against the Drumcree parade. The Orange parade did not materialise. The staunch upholders of "tradition" decided to break with tradition and, instead of marching to Drumcree, held a religious meeting at Corcrain Orange Hall as a protest at having to take the alternative route away from Obins Street. This clearly demonstrated to many people that the Orange Order could and would break with its hitherto sacrosanct "traditional routes", and they argued that since the Orange Order had voluntarily given up the Garvaghy Road once they could do so again.

Nevertheless, the 12th July morning parade went ahead as usual. As many people held the mistaken opinion that it too would not be taking place on account of the previous Sunday's non-event, the numbers who turned out to object were less than expected. A Women's Silent Protest was prevented from leaving Churchill Park to confront the marchers by the British Army. The RUC were particularly furious with the women protestors, insulting them and ripping away their placards. One of the women was hospitalised.

In June 1988 a planned parade from the Garvaghy Road by the Drumcree Faith and Justice Group into the town centre to highlight the inequality which surrounded the parades issue in Portadown was restricted to a 400 yard stretch of the Garvaghy Road by the RUC. The organisers had told the RUC that only 30 people would take part and that the only symbol would be a banner with a green hand and an orange hand interlinked. The Drumcree Faith and Justice Group had a Christian motivation and commitment to using exclusively peaceful means. They wrote to all the relevant authorities every year expressing their belief that the vast majority of residents were opposed to Orange parades on the Garvaghy Road and that the opposition was just and right on moral and religious grounds. The Orange Order in Portadown never acknowledged the receipt of a letter in the 8 years of their campaign.

In July the Drumcree Faith and Justice Group organised a sit-down protest on the road with only limited numbers taking part. The RUC removed the protesters forcefully. The parade consisted of approximately 500 Orangemen and 4 bands, two Church bands and two "kick the pope" or "loyalist" bands. Crowds of Nationalist residents at Ballyoran, Garvaghy and Churchill were hemmed in by over 1,000 members of the British Army and RUC. The road was lined with security vehicles. As one newspaper report recorded afterwards, "only a massive show of strength from the police and the army ensured the Drumcree parade passed off without major incident."

This was a pattern to be repeated for 5 years. Parades were preceded by nights of riots. Peaceful protests (cross-community tea party, loud music and limited sit down protests) were suppressed by very heavy security presence. By 1991, the Drumcree Faith and Justice Group were becoming aware of criticism that their form of protest was becoming predictable and totally ineffective. It was taking the focus away from the residents opposition to the actual marches.

During the Drumcree parade in 1992, led by David Trimble MP and consisting of 1,200 Orangemen and four bands, marchers and bandsmen broke ranks on the Garvaghy Road and attacked several local people as well as a press photographer in full view of the RUC. The attack incensed Nationalists hemmed in behind RUC lines and clashes broke out between the RUC and locals at Ballyoran Park and also at Churchill Park/Woodside.

A survey carried out in the Garvaghy Road area by the Drumcree Faith and Justice Group in 1993 showed that 95% of those questioned were opposed to Orange marches along that road. For the first time, there was no organised protest against the parades. There was, however, an increase in rioting in the area on the nights before the marches as young people, frustrated at the seemingly ineffectiveness of previous protests, vented their anger on the police and property. The disused Mayfair factory was burned during this riot. In 1994 the DFJ failed to hold a protest. Opposition to the parade was only expressed by riots during two previous nights.

Through this entire period which included the establishment of the Six County State, the 60 years of Stormont with its own laws and police force, the Orange Order enjoyed an unparalleled freedom to demonstrate; a freedom not enjoyed by the minority community. The role of the RUC in securing the Order's ability to regularly parade through communities where such a presence was regarded as offensive, questioned the impartiality of that force. Far from being the 'piggy in the middle' the RUC was seen to be openly acting on behalf of only one community. This in turn helped to reinforce the contempt which the Orange Order showed for any group which sought to question its traditional 'rights', a contempt which was highlighted by the Order's refusal to even acknowledge receipt of letters from the Drumcree Faith and Justice group during it's eight year campaign on this issue. It is against this background of previously enjoyed privileges, which were protected by the state, coupled with this contempt that has led to the situation where Catholic/Nationalists justly demand their rights.
The need to secure consent and agreement, and to respect the legitimate rights of the minority are completely ignored by the Loyal Orders.

By May 1995, local community activists were attempting to harness the resentment and anger which the Orange parades created into a constructive and peaceful campaign. This led to the formation of the Garvaghy Road Residents Group, which was to act as an umbrella group of tenants associations in the various housing estates, political parties and Drumcree and Justice Group. At the inaugural public meeting to select a committee for the group, held on May 10 in Drumcree Community Centre, representatives of the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community from Belfast addressed those present.

The GRRG immediately set about its task which it saw as threefold;

(a): to organise a community-based opposition to the provocative and sectarian marches by the Orange Order through the heart of the overwhelmingly Catholic/Nationalist Garvaghy Road area;
(b): to use whatever political influence available in order to have these marches rerouted;
(c): in the event of the marches not being rerouted, to organise peaceful community-based protests against the marches on Sunday July 9 and Tuesday July 12.

In pursuit of these aims, the GRRG requested meetings with the Orange Order and with the RUC. Over 1,200 signatures were gathered for a petition which called for the marches to be rerouted.

Despite several direct requests to the Order, and the use of intermediaries, no response was ever forthcoming from the Portadown Orange District.

Meetings with local RUC chiefs throughout May, June and the first week of July were unsatisfactory. It became quite apparent that the RUC did not have a consistent policy on the issue of parades, or on the interpretation of the existing Public Order legislation and its application. Indeed, the RUC made it clear that the matter was one for the Secretary of State. A request by the GRRG to have a direct meeting with the RUC Chief Constable met with refusal.

The Residents' Group also wrote to the Secretary of State, Patrick Mayhew, asking him to use the powers available to him to prevent any Orange marches taking place along the Garvaghy Road. The response came from an official of the Security Policy and Operations Branch of the NCO who wrote,

"Decisions on the routing of parades are an operational matter for the RUC."

This reply totally ignored the powers available to the Secretary of State under the Public Order legislation, and conveniently disregarded the precedents set by Douglas Hurd in banning Orange parades from Obins Street a decade earlier.

Having failed to receive any assurances that the marches would be rerouted, the GRRG filed the statutory seven days notice with the RUC of their intention to organise a protest march from the Garvaghy Road to Carleton Street Orange Hall on the morning of Sunday 9th July.

The RUC then asked for two meetings with the Group on Tuesday 4th and Friday 7th at which the RUC requested that the residents reconsider both the timing and manner of their protest. It was pointed out to the RUC that public meetings of residents had fully endorsed the protest and that the RUC had offered no legitimate reason why the protest could not go ahead as planned.

RUC officers removed all the local Nationalist symbols from the Garvaghy Road area on the Thursday night before the Drumcree Parade. Over two dozen Irish tricolours which had been flying from poles along the road for several months were removed. The act was viewed as a provocative action that undermined the work of community leaders to halt the riots that had become almost as traditional as the marching season.

A sinister development emerged that same week as the Mid-Ulster Brigade of the UVF issued a statement, published in two local newspapers, saying they would be "closely monitoring the controversial parades in the area."

This loyalist terror gang had been responsible for the murders of well over 100 Catholic men, women and children in the Mid-Ulster area since 1972. A leading Portadown loyalist figure, known locally as "King Rat", (the now desceased Billy Wright) was believed to have been implicated in many of these murders. The statement was seen as a deliberate attempt to intimidate and frighten Nationalists from participating in the protests against the Orange marches.

As the date of the Drumcree parade approached, it was becoming clear that many people recognised and supported the validity of the GRRG's stance. John Hume, the leader of the SDLP, and Gerry Adams, President of Sinn Fein, both publicly gave their support, as did other leading politicians. The Catholic Primate of All-Ireland, Cardinal Cathal Daly, also issued a message saying that he applauded the GRRG attempts to achieve a peaceful and permanent resolution of the parades issue in Portadown.

On Sunday morning, July 9, it became clear that the community's desire for a peaceful opposition to the Orange marches was being heeded. For the first time in over twenty years, there had been no rioting in the Nationalist areas on the night before a march.

At around 9.50 am., the residents' protest march made its' way from the junction of the Garvaghy and Ashgrove Roads towards the town centre. It was halted shortly after 10.00 am, several hundred yards further along the Garvaghy Road by the RUC, who had closed the roadway with armoured landrovers behind which were dozens of RUC personnel in riot gear. A notice was handed to the organisers of the protest informing them that they were banned from proceeding beyond the junction of Garvaghy Road and Castle Avenue at any time that day by the RUC Deputy Divisional Commander, Supt. James Blair. In front of the assembled media, Mr. Blair was asked by the residents' spokesperson if the same legislation would be used to prevent the Orange march from proceeding along the Garvaghy Road later that day. He refused to answer.

The protesters then made their way back to the junction of the Garvaghy and Ashgrove Roads where they then remained at both sides of the road. As time went by the numbers of those taking part in the residents protest increased. From midday onwards RUC vehicles approached the protesters, and senior RUC officers, including Assistant Chief Constable Hall, asked the organisers what their intentions were and if they intended to block the road. The RUC were told that depended on whether the Orange march would be allowed down the Garvaghy Road, or whether the RUC would attempt to restrict the movement of local people to their homes and streets. Just before 12.30, the protest organisers were asked by the RUC to inform residents that landrovers would be advancing towards them but would stop about 50 yards away. The organisers then called everyone together to inform them of what was about to happen, and not to panic. They informed them that they should all move back towards the footpaths again. Immediately afterwards, Chief Superintendent McCreesh told the organisers that the residents had broken the law by blocking the road and were liable to prosecution, even though McCreesh knew that the organisers were relaying ACC Hall's message. This was clearly a deliberate attempt by the RUC to artificially manufacture a public order situation. The response of the residents was unanimous - if they were going to be accused falsely of blocking the road, there was only one legitimate response, whereupon several hundred people moved out from the footpaths and promptly sat down on the roadway. RUC landrovers then took up position on either side of the sit-down protest and the residents anxiously awaited the next move, knowing as they did that the return parade from Drumcree would be due to commence shortly after 1.00 pm.

At Drumcree the RUC told the Orangemen their march along the Garvaghy Road would not be able to proceed as planned due to the Nationalist sit-down protest. The Portadown District Master then announced that the Orange Order would remain at Drumcree until such times as they could march the Garvaghy Road.

The situation remained that way for several hours. On the Garvaghy Road the protest had taken on a carnival-like appearance, with traditional musicians providing entertainment while local people contented themselves with snacks and sandwiches rather than leave the protest for the comfort of their own homes and their Sunday dinners. It was evident to all present that the protesters behaved with dignity and discipline. Those who know the area observed one very significant point: the protesters included most of the community activists. These were people who wanted a better future for all and invest their time and energy building this future.

At 4.45 pm, ACC Hall relayed a message to the Residents Group, via a Superintendent Blakely that the Orange march had been rerouted and would not be going back into town along the Garvaghy Road. Members of the GRRG then addressed the Nationalist protesters who by then numbered around 700. Urging them to support the next protest on July 12, the residents were then asked to disperse peacefully and not to go near any possible flashpoint areas.

Less than a mile away, the atmosphere was a complete contrast. Harold Gracey, the Portadown District Master, had issued a call for Orangemen across the North to show their solidarity by blocking their own towns and villages. As Gracey made this announcement, the notorious Portadown Loyalist, Billy Wright, was already organising a blockade in Charles Street close to many Catholic homes. The local Unionist M.P., David Trimble, also read out a statement which called for "all Orange brethren to muster at the church". Throughout the afternoon and evening, sporadic violence erupted at Drumcree as Orangemen and their supporters vented their anger, and attempted to break through towards the nearby Nationalist Ballyoran Park estate. The arrival of Ian Paisley brought the announcement of a massed rally of Orangemen to be held on Monday night.

In the meantime, Orangemen and their supporters seized control of all roads around Portadown and effectively put the town's Catholic/Nationalist community under siege, and prevented access to or exit from the Nationalist area. Catholic families living along Charles St. and the Dungannon Road were particularly isolated and vulnerable during the following days and nights. As thousands of Orangemen commenced illegal parades past their homes to and from Drumcree while the RUC looked on and did not interfere. The vulnerability of these Catholic families was graphically demonstrated when a Catholic family of four were burned out of their home in Corcrain that night.

By 10.00 pm, several thousand Orangemen and their supporters had assembled at Drumcree but when darkness fell only a few hundred remained and even less stayed during the night. Although the Orangemen numbered less than 150 during the night the RUC did not attempt to remove them.

On Monday it was clear that the Orange and Unionist leadership were not seeking a resolution of the issue. Instead they were gearing up for confrontation and were concentrating their energy in organising the massed rally planned for 7.30 pm that night, and organising protests throughout the Six Counties. Elsewhere Orangemen and their supporters, in response to Harold Gracey's call, were beginning to block roads across the North, and Larne Harbour was closed by Orangemen led by their local MP, Roy Beggs. Hundreds of holiday makers and lorry drivers were left stranded by the closure of the port which was estimated to have cost over £1,000,000 in lost revenue and damages. Similar protests took place in Belfast, Carrickfergus and other parts of the North.

The Secretary of State astounded many people that afternoon when he tried, Pontius Pilate-like, to wash his hands of the increasingly serious situation. When questioned outside Stormont about events in Portadown, Patrick Mayhem replied,

"It's not for me, I have no role in this at all. I'm certainly not going to act as an adjudicator or arbitrator or anything of that sort. That's quite unconstitutional". (BBC TV)

Given Mayhew's legal background, it is unbelievable that he did not know of the range of powers open to him under the current Public Order legislation which could well have helped prevent the whole situation from arising at all.

Mary Harney, TD, the leader of the Progressive Democrats in the Government of the Irish Republic, called on Unionist politicians to give "courageous and responsible leadership"

She said:

"Instead of aiding and abetting the unreasonable triumphalist and coat-trailing demands of Orangemen - to march through an area where they are not wanted - it is high time that Unionist politicians spelled out the new political realities of Northern Ireland for Orangemen." (Irish Independent)

An offer from the Garvaghy Road Residents Group seeking a meeting with the Orange Order in Portadown Town Hall that evening to discuss the Twelfth parade was rejected. Independent mediators were then asked to put the GRRG's proposals to the Order.

The massed rally which started at 8.30 pm and was attended by approximately 10,000 people, led to a major deterioration of the situation in Portadown. A series of speakers including several Unionist MP's addressed the rally. However violence erupted almost immediately following a speech by Ian Paisley when he urged his assembled audience to,

"Win this battle or all is lost,- it's a matter of life or death, freedom or slavery."

As the Irish News reported, "Minutes after those words were uttered, a frenzied mob of rioters began hurling stones, bottles or any other missiles available .... as hundreds of loyalists began streaming across the fields parallel with Drumcree Road."

Over 1,000 loyalists, many wearing Orange sashes and other regalia, broke through the RUC lines which offered only minimal resistance. Five members of an English Channel Four TV crew were the mob's first victims as the loyalists headed directly for nearby Catholic homes. At the same time, large crowds of Nationalists from Ballyoran and adjacent estates stood ready to defend their homes and families from the oncoming horde. The loyalists veered towards Ashley Close and Andre Heights launching a barrage of missiles at the houses and their terrified occupants before directing their attention towards the nearby St. John the Baptist Primary School. In Craigwell Avenue, beside which a Loyalist blockade had been in place from Sunday, almost all the Catholic families had no choice but to leave their homes after the RUC repositioned their landrovers and allowed loyalists access to the street. When confronted by residents of the street about this, the RUC officer in charge stated "my men are not prepared to protect the likes of you". (When questioned about the incident by a GRRG delegation the Chief Constable said they could not identify the officer involved). The residents of Craigwell Avenue. which is almost exclusively Catholic, had been subjected to over 24 hours of continuous intimidation by this time.

By 10.30 pm the general mood within the Nationalist community was reminiscent of 1969, with families genuinely afraid for their safety and preoccupied with the question of their safety. With the entire Nationalist area sealed off by Orangemen and their supporters, many wondered what terror the hours of darkness would bring. The Drumcree Centre was made available throughout the night for those who had left their homes.

At 12.30 am the mediators returned from their meeting with the Orangemen. It emerged that Ian Paisley and his son, along with David Trimble, were negotiating on behalf of the local Orangemen. It was also becoming clear from other sources that in order to end the riot at Drumcree, the RUC was also arranging a deal with Paisley and Trimble, which effectively excluded the residents, and which was going to allow a march to take place along the Garvaghy Road at 2.30 am.

The Garvaghy Road Residents Group told the mediators that they were not given a mandate to negotiate with politicians and asked that they act on GRRG's behalf mediating between the RUC, Portadown Orangemen and ourselves . The GRRG immediately prepared to organise another sit-down protest on the roadway to thwart the RUC/Unionist deal.

At around the same time reports were coming through to the GRRG meeting that a large crowd of loyalists. estimated to be between 800-1000 led by the figure known as "King Rat", had made their way from the town centre to Obins St./Park Road and the public park. Dozens more Catholic homes were now placed under threat, and open to attack at any time. RUC units which had been supposedly positioned in Woodhouse Street to pre-empt such a move had driven their vehicles into a car-park and let the loyalists pass unhindered.

Within an hour around 500 people had returned to the scene of Sunday's protest on the Garvaghy Road. Shortly before 3.00 am, a large force of RUC riot squads arrived to confront the Nationalist protesters. Under the glare of television spotlights, the RUC officer in charge was challenged to state why he intended to forcibly move peaceful Nationalists while those Orangemen who had caused mayhem around the town were still allowed the freedom to assemble at Drumcree and other points in Portadown. Having no answer for the question put to him by the residents spokesperson, and by the media, the RUC officer hastily withdrew and went into conference with several other senior officers. By 3.30 am the RUC riot squad had pulled back. Nevertheless, the area still remained tense.

Shortly after 5.00 am, negotiations recommenced directly between the GRRG and the RUC Divisional Commander Heuston and Superintendent Blair in the presence of the mediators. The mediators then went to the Orange Order. The two RUC Deputy Chief Constables, Ronnie Flanagan and Blair Wallace, took over negotiation for the RUC at 9.00 am. The outline of an negotiated settlement was emerging. During this part of the proceedings Flanagan responded positively to the mediators proposal that there would be no more parades on the Garvaghy Road without the consent of locals. The mediators informed the GRRG and many of the protesters of this statement.

As part of the final agreement, the independent mediators read out a statement to the media making public exactly what all parties had agreed to:

"Following difficult and protracted negotiations between representatives of the GRRG, officers of the RUC and representatives of the Portadown District of the Orange Order, an accommodation has been reached and operational police decisions have been made which we believe will bring this situation to a conclusion.
"This involves a form of procession along the Garvaghy Road by the Orange Order and symbolic peaceful protest marshalled to the footpath by the GRRG.
"It is now understood that tomorrow's parade will take an alternative route."

It was agreed that only local members of Portadown Orange District would parade without bands or banners. The protesters would move to the footpath on the approach of the Orangemen and allow them to pass. It was understood by all that no Orange march would take place on the Garvaghy Road on the Twelfth.

Nationalists recognised they had not achieved all they had hoped for. Nevertheless, they were willing to accept this fact and hope that a more permanent and satisfactory solution would result from their willingness to compromise. That hope was to be dashed much more quickly than anyone was to realise.

The agreed Orange march took place at 10.50 on Tuesday morning. However, as it passed by the Nationalist protesters, it was quite evident that the marchers included many Orangemen from other towns. Within minutes of the marchers leaving the Garvaghy Road, it soon emerged that the Orange and Unionist leadership were denying any agreement had been made. David Trimble, who along with Ian Paisley joined the marchers as they left the Garvaghy Road was the first to deny the existence of the agreement. Going one step further he triumphantly asserted,

"We're glad to be down our traditional route, as we expect to be again"

Speaking to a reporter from the Irish Times, Trimble asserted, "There was no compromise. We have come down our traditional route in normal fashion with our flags flying. "

The District Master also denied any compromise. Thousands of Orangemen and their supporters engaged in shameless displays of triumphalism from Shillington's Bridge right through the town as several bands joined in the march. In Carleton Street, Orangemen formed a guard of honour for Trimble and Paisley who then victoriously pranced, hands joined and held aloft, to the entrance of the Orange Hall.

Many political leaders and commentators condemned them for their actions, with the leader of the Alliance Party, John Alderdice, being particularly scathing of comments made by Ian Paisley.

In its editorial of July 12, The Irish News compared the willingness of the residents to compromise with,

"the triumphalism displayed by MP's David Trimble and Ian Paisley as they headed into Portadown to the familiar cries of 'No Surrender.'
"Mr. Trimble did his cause no good with a victory speech in which he danced over the feelings of his Garvaghy Road constituents who allowed the march to pass, and in which he threatened them with more of the same in the future."

The same day an Irish Times editorial slated:

"the way in which Mr. David Trimble MP greeted yesterday's compromise in Portadown. His face shining with boyish glee, he told the television cameras "We're glad to be down the traditional route, and we expect to be again". This would be pathetic cant from a schoolboy in a playground having stolen a few of the headmaster's apples. From a member of parliament, a university lecturer, a man who has ambition to lead, it was just one just one more example of the fatal attraction of the blind alley for a certain breed of unionist politician.
"Mr. Trimble knows as well as anyone that he is playing with fire..... Narrow political ambitions have ridden the wild horses of hatred and sectarianism to achieve their aims. Mr. Trimble knows better, but he chooses not to know."

On the 12th morning, District Master Harold Gracey announced that the Portadown lodges had decided not to march along the Garvaghy Road in order "not to cause any further hassle to their fellow citizens" - a frank if somewhat understated recognition of the reality of the situation. Nevertheless, Nationalists remained somewhat sceptical of this apparent overnight change of heart.

That scepticism proved well-founded when an Orange lodge, led by a band, approached the Garvaghy Road from the town centre and paraded around Woodside Green, a mixed but predominantly Catholic housing estate. Protestors then blocked the Garvaghy Road to prevent the Orangemen going any further. The Nationalists succeeded in turning the parade back towards the town, but serious questions were asked as to why the RUC had let the parade into the area in the first place.

Portadown Nationalists only asked a few simple questions - How could anyone expect them to trust any of these Orange and Unionist leaders again? Did the faith and trust which Nationalists had sought to build through accommodation mean so little that it was rewarded with denials and displays of sectarian triumphalism? The Orange order and the Unionist politicians were not interested in dialogue or accommodation.. Their behaviour after they got their march demonstrated this. This contrasted dramatically with the dignity, discipline and peaceful determination of the Garvaghy Residents. They well deserved the praise they received in the national and international press. They rightly expected to be treated with dignity and respect.

The behaviour of the Orange and Unionist leadership, coupled with the fact that the Catholic community had endured almost 48 hours of siege, terror and intimidation, enraged many local people. Any observer would realise that it would be extremely difficult for the Orange Order to win the consent of the residents of the Garvaghy Road area for some time to come.

To anyone who cared to notice in the aftermath of July 95, it was immediately obvious that a permanent solution to the issue of contentious and sectarian marches in Portadown and other similarly affected areas had to be found.

Even though the Nationalist community had been unnecessarily offended by the Orange Order and Unionist politicians they were the group that made the running in the autumn months. In an effort to prevent a repeat of the summers events, the Garvaghy Road Residents once more wrote to the Orange Order seeking a meeting around the beginning of September. Again no reply or acknowledgement was forthcoming from the Orange Order.

The Mediation Network was asked by the Residents to attempt to facilitate a meeting with the Orange Order in Portadown. Despite spending several months trying to arrange such a meeting, and spending long hours preparing the GRRC to meet the Orange Order, the Network came up against a brick wall of refusal from the Order.

Far from seeking to enter into a genuine dialogue with the Nationalist community, the Orange Order continued to revel in triumphalism after July. Medals were struck to commemorate the "Seige of Drumcree" and at a special ceremony in September, David Trimble, Ian Paisley, Harold Gracey, Jeffrey Donaldson and the Church of Ireland rector at Drumcree, Rev John Pickering, were awarded the first of these medals for their part in the "Seige." Referring to the misspelt medals, local people suggested that those who so vociferously demanded to walk the Queen's highway should at least have a grasp of the Queen's English.

September also saw David Trimble elected as leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. After his victory, Trimble was carried shoulder high from the building by two Portadown Orangemen, Alan Locke and Arnold Hatch. Both men were amongst the 12 unionist councillors on Craigavon Council who had been surcharged and barred from holding office in 1986 who were described by a High Court judge as having been "motivated by sectarian bias."

In the autumn, it was also decided that the committee should become known as the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition due to the fact the it included representatives of several groups based within the town's Catholic/Nationalist community; and also to reflect the widespread and varied support which it enjoyed.

Given the Orange Order's refusal to enter into dialogue with the Coalition, the residents then began to contact as many interested parties and individuals as possible to put forward their case for the rerouting of Orange parades away from the Garvaghy Road.

Meetings were held with leading members of the Alliance Party, Mo Mowlam of the British Labour Party and with Sinn Fein, amongst others.

David Trimble, the local Unionist Member of Parliament in whose constituency the Garvaghy Road lies and leader of the Unionist Party was contacted by the Residents. Three letters we