Absence of violence in Drumcree does not make standoff any less significant

Row comes amid rising division and a tendency towards cynical political posturing in Northern IrelandThree decades ago, it took the deaths of three Roman Catholic children – the Quinn brothers, Jason, nine, Mark, 10, and 11-year-old Richard – in a petrol bomb attack to bring an end to the Drumcree dispute. “No road is worth a life, let alone the lives of three little boys,” the Orange Order’s County Armagh chaplain said at the time.It is perhaps extraordinary to think that this could ever have needed saying – but that was then. Northern Ireland is very different place today. Continue reading...