Written by Ulster & Leinster Regional Organiser.
Community Action Tenants Union (CATU)
The Garvaghy Road community, with support from across Ireland,successfully stopped an Orange march this September 2026. The Garvaghy Road, the deaths and trauma associated with the previous marches in the 1990s, and the long history of violence against the Catholic minority in Portadown is a particularly dark history for this island. The bravery and organisation of the Garvaghy road residents both in the 1990s and now is also particularly unique. That said there are major things that every community can learn from the victory this September.
1. Community Structure
The Garvaghy Road Residents Committee led the response to the Orange March this September. They are independent of the state and have maintained an organised structure since the 1990s with both experienced and new members. An estate level structure meant that the residents could respond quickly in an organised fashion and pull wider support together with a clear voice. It also meant that there was a clear organised force who could negotiate directly with power instead of outsourcing representation.
In many other parts of the island a rich history of both independent tenants’ union and residents’ committees and associations have either been integrated in the state as service providers, pulled into political party structures or simply allowed to disintegrate over time.
Estate level residents and tenants committees, associations and unions are essential for organising on the island and need to be rebuilt.
2. Community Organising
After the Garvaghy road resident committee called community meetings in early September, they rapidly moved to organise the whole community against the march. A petition against the march pulled in 3800 signatures door to door, at meetings and in the community center. Door to door community organising meant that the entire community could be engaged with on an emotional level; as traumas, tensions and fear resurfaced, a clear message could be sent that a majority of the community opposed the march and a base of residents could be readied to mobilise.
In many communities this essential face to face, door to door skill has been lost or replaced by social media, press, and indirect communication and organisations or gate keepers who block engagement with the entire community in favour of negotiations with power alone.
Community organising, face to face, door to door and in community spaces works both in crisis and in slow issue building and needs to be normalised across the entire island.
3. Direct Action
The Garvaghy road residents and the wider community knew that if court action and negotiations failed there was a real risk that the state would attempt to force the march down the road, supporting the orange order and there would be a wider threat of loyalist violence in the town. The risk was also that a disorganised response from residents and the understandable anger at old wounds and trauma being opened would mean rioting on the street and then a wider demonising of the community. Standing aside was not an option.
Three blockades were set up, hundreds of people thick on the road on the night of the initial standoff. The fear and worry was real but the discipline and organisation was real too. These three blockades would have taken hours to clear and meant the use of such violence and force by the police would have been unprecedented in modern times. The numbers and the method made all the difference, no blockade and numbers less than a couple hundred would have meant a very real risk that the march would be forced through.
In many communities direct action as a method of stopping hate marches, for-profit developments, evictions and displacement has been closed off as a method, with exceptions like CATU’s anti-eviction organising, Save Our Sperrins occupying land to stop gold mining, and a sprinkle of other examples. At the same time, activist direct action groups can use small numbers without rooting their actions in the community, often using the defense that the local community is burnt out, or is too repressed, to be meaningfully involved.
Direct action has to be returned as a common sense radicalism to tackle the injustices we see in housing, healthcare, education, against hate, violence and war. It is a massive strength that we have and means even a small local community can stand up to the entire state and entities with far more money and power, and win.
4. Community Resources
The Garvaghy road community had the Drumcree Community Centre. This centre is a gem of a community space, running youth programs and community support. In the summer they ran a multi-cultural community day in response to the pograms witnessed in the North.They are truly an inclusive community space. They are trusted and also have a good degree of independence from the state. They were able to feed people, fundraise and develop merch, banners and all manners of resources to sustain the standoff and the following 12 day encampment.
Many working class communities fought for spaces like this across the entire island in the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. While there are some exceptions, many other community spaces have lost their independence, their bold politics or simply disappeared completely.
Where we have community centres like Drumcree, every group needs to get involved. Where they don’t exist, we need to build them. Every community needs a space like this and we need the practical capacity to feed, fundraise and organise.
5. Political and Activist Support
Many republicans, socialists, community activists, organisers and grassroots groups stood together on the Garvaghy road. There were and are differences of analysis and message from focusing on anti-orangeism and the failure of Stormont and the peace process, to an anti-fascist message, to a solidarity message, to a community message and a peace message. There were also differences in tactics such as how hard to push and hold direct action or maintain a more passive protest. Despite all these differences, by and large, all groups rowed in the same direction. The residents were the key anchor..
Unity may not be possible across the entire island, but there is room to agree on some common ideas and use experience and skills that are there to support organising and action.
Bringing thousands and thousands of people out to organise in our communities and building structures from the bottom up is the defining challenge and potential of our political times.
6. A Clear Message & Vision of a Better Ireland
Finally the Garvaghy road residents committee and the local community had a very clear message and vision. No going back, no hate and violence, to reopening the trauma of the 1990s, no moving us. Yes to peace, yes to community.
Across the encampment week the message was supported by the spirit and morale building of food, music, messages of solidarity from across the island and world, the craic and the emotional support, the massive concerts and the mass rally on the road. The message was demonstrated by doing.
There is a spirit of a new Ireland in the bravery of the Garvaghy road, something that captures people’s hearts and imagination and a vision of Irishness that is both fearless and welcoming. Every community on this island can make that spirit and vision their own and build a new Ireland.