Families who lived through one of the Troubles’ worst flashpoints fear its legacy is reaching another generation.
Portadown, Northern Ireland – When the summer holidays arrived, Chris Nelson worried about his mother.
At night, he lay awake waiting for her to return. During the day, he rang family members to ask if she was safe. There were threats and letters through the door.
“I was afraid to leave the house,” he told Al Jazeera.
His mother, Rosemary Nelson, was a lawyer representing the Catholic residents opposing the Protestant Orange Order parade along Portadown’s Garvaghy Road in Northern Ireland in the late 1990s.
Every July, as marching season approached, there was a standoff.
Orangemen sought to return from Drumcree church along what they regarded as their traditional route. Residents opposed the passage of the anti-Catholic organisation through a majority Catholic street. In some years, police forced the parade through. In later years, it was blocked.
Rosemary would spend summer evenings alongside the residents on Garvaghy Road. Before leaving home each evening, she told her son that she was going to look after families and make sure their children were okay. She compared them to his friends at primary school.
