Drumcree Church, a rural parish near Portadown, became the site of a major political incident in 1996, when the annual Orangemen's march was banned from returning to the centre of Portadown via the Nationalist Garvaghy road after attending worship at Drumcree parish church. This decision was made by the Chief Constable of the Royal Ulster Constabulary and not the Northern Ireland parades commission who at this time did not have authority to prohibit parades existing only as an advisory body. Public unrest and violence escalated and over the next three summers the situation was unstable with other parades coming under first police and later commission sanction.