Abstract

This paper attempts to explain what motivates the Catholic community in Portadown in their opposition to routing Orange Parades through their neighbourhoods. It argues that the parades issue cannot be fully explained in terms of a conflict over two equal but opposing sets of rights, or as a localised manifestation of a power struggle between the two ethno-national communities in Northern Ireland. Rather it is best understood as a struggle against the sectarianism that governs relations between the two communities, and which Catholics experience as a violation of their dignity and rights. This violation effectively maintains their subordinate status by undermining their self-confidence, self-esteem and self-respect. This, in turn, diminishes their ability and willingness to participate in and to benefit from the socioeconomic and cultural life of one of the most prosperous provincial towns in the north of Ireland.