GARVAGHY ROAD RESIDENTS COALITION
Portadown
Co. Armagh, Ireland
Phone/Fax: Int.Code +44 (0)1762 392898
E-Mail Garvaghy @ aol.com
22:00 Local Time
This evening has seen an increasing amount of Orange Order supporters attacking local Catholics and mounting successive impromptu parades up to the barricades around the Nationalist Area of Portadown. Their crowds number between 400-500 at a time, often accompanied by 8-9 bands.
At 5:00pm, loyalists attacked a local petrol station owned by a Catholic Resident. They invaded the shop, wrecking its interior and shouting verbal abuse at the owner and shop assistant. The police were only 50 yards up the road, but the attackers got away before the RUC arrived, escaping up the lane and directly to the field where the Orange Order is camped out. The same shop owner had yesterday been ordered to close by loyalists. Obviously today's attack was a response to his failure to be intimidated by Orange thugs.
While the residents gathered at the Community Centre to pray for peace, hundreds of Orangemen blocked the Dungannon Road leading up to the Garvaghy Road, and conducted a parade that went right around the barricade near the chapel. The Orange parade, depsite being completely illegal, was allowed to go on and block the road for at least an hour, while cars and busloads of loyalists from Tyrone arrived to join them and then go out to the Drumcree encampment.
As of 9:30, loyalists have surrounded 12 - 15 Catholic homes in the Ashbrook estate on the Moy Road. Calls for assistance which have been made to the RUC by the families and by local elected representatives have gone unheeded. Since the weekend, requests for protection of these homes and other Catholic houses outside the perimeter of the cordoned off area, made to the RUC and to Security Minister Adam Ingram, have been unanswered. These residents feel particularly vulnerable and this evening are faced with very real intimidation and danger.
Inside the barricades, the attempt is being made to keep children occupied, as the situation is beginning to especially wear on them. Rain delayed the planned festival, but story readings and face painting were still organized inside the Community Centre for the young ones. Musicians and more festival activities are in preparation for Thursday.