THE BATTLE OF PORTADOWN

By Kevin Fedarko

Viewed from one direction, the scene early last week in Portadown, Northern Ireland, evoked a country fair. The meadows surrounding the Protestant church Drumcree, 25 miles southwest of Belfast, were dotted with people, tents and a large marquee. But the sight on the opposite slopes was anything but bucolic. Two rows of razor wire separated the church and the main road into town. Behind this first barrier was a second: a gray wall of armored Land Rovers, parked nose to tail. And behind the second cordon was a third: a phalanx of policemen from the Royal Ulster Constabulary.

By week's end all that armature saw service. An RUC decision to obstruct a traditional Protestant march sparked three days of rioting as Unionists protested the perceived insult to their heritage. Then, when the march was allowed to proceed, Catholics exploded with protests of their own that injured hundreds and left a Catholic youth dead.

This is "marching season" in Ulster, a time when Protestants commemorate July 12, the day in 1690 that William of Orange vanquished his Catholic rival, King James II, at the Battle of the Boyne. The victory established England's Protestant ascendancy in Ireland, and it was in memory of this event that 1,300 Orangemen had gathered in Portadown. The town's Catholic minority, however, regard these marches as provocative. Drumcree church has become a flash point because the Orangemen's route takes them along a stretch of Garvaghy Road, where the majority of residents are Catholic. Thus on July 7 police ordered the march to be rerouted.

That infuriated the Protestants. For three days, gangs of hooded men blocked roads and torched cars. On Wednesday 180 fires raged, and the commander of Belfast's fire brigade called it his department's busiest night since the Luftwaffe bombed the city in 1941. The following day, ruc Chief Constable Sir Hugh Annesley reversed his orders. Police began shoving Catholic protesters out of the way and escorting Orangemen down Garvaghy Road. Unionist marches unfolded across the province. When Catholic demonstrators tried to block them, the police went to work with their nightsticks. Running battles ensued, with petrol bombs from rioters and volleys of plastic bullets from police.

By week's end, only one person, an Irish Catholic car-factory worker, had been killed. He had reportedly been hit accidentally by a troop carrier. But many people in the troubled land feared that they were about to see a return to the 1980s, when assassinations and bombings were as commonplace as they were terrible.

--By Kevin Fedarko. Reported by Helen Gibson/Belfast

With reporting by HELEN GIBSON/BELFAST