‘Trauma still there’: A decades-old standoff returns to Northern Ireland

Portadown, Northern Ireland – When the summer holidays arrived, Chris Nelson worried about his mother. At night, he lay awake waiting for her to return. During the day, he rang family members to ask if she was safe. There were threats and letters through the door. His mother, Rosemary Nelson, was a lawyer representing the Catholic residents opposing the Protestant Orange Order parade along Portadown’s Garvaghy Road in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s. Every July, as marching season approached, there was a standoff. Orangemen sought to return from Drumcree church along what they regarded as their traditional route. Residents opposed the passage of the anti-Catholic organisation through a majority Catholic street.