The Drumcree parade has placed Northern Ireland at the centre of international politics. It is a story of laws and rights. The high court allowed the Orange Order to parade from the church of Drumcree to Portadown on Sunday 27th September 2026. The route should have taken it through the Garvaghy road. The residents there have opposed the march and have blocked the road making the parade impossible. The Protestant side (Orange order) believe that it is a breach of law and order. The Catholic side (Garvaghy road residents) that it tramples their human rights. The police have been called to reestablish and uphold order.
Roman law distinguished between laws which are defined by society and rights which are defined as natural. Laws concern the law of citizens ‘ius civile’ while rights refer to the law of peoples ‘ius gentium’. The first is national law and deals with matters within a border. The police (and generally the executive) and the judges (judiciary) uphold laws which have been passed and published by the parliament (legislative). Rights are the realm of natural law. The Romans believed that since different countries employ different legal systems, the only way to communicate was by pointing out shared views on the natural world (natural law). This allows for international treatises and diplomatic relations to have meaning.
At Drumcree the protestants are upholding the law, and the Catholics are proclaiming rights. The first believe the discussion is within local socially established boundaries; the latter refer to international beliefs. The problem is that the police deal with internal issues while the army deals with international. Health, schooling, commercial activity, and safety are all subject to local laws.
The natural law is termed recht aicnid in ancient Irish law. It is a pre-Norman concept, but the name demonstrates that it was derived from the Romans present in England. The term recht in Old Irish may derive from a Germanic language (‘recht’ in German means ‘law’). The term aicnid is a calque of naturae (latin ‘of nature’). Civil law is termed recht littra (the law ‘of the letter’), this is an Irish term taken from Latin (littera = letter). The distinction is between spirit and letter of law, an expression made famous by Saint Paul (2 Cor. 3:6). It demonstrates that it is distinction which reached Ireland from abroad and was enforced through Christianity.
Civil law guarantees law and order.
The parade is legal according to the law of the land, but it affects the nature of the people who reside on its path. It signifies that the locals believe they are not living in a legal country but in an international space where only the law of nature applies. Since there is no legitimate defence unit which can enforce natural law, some resorted to paramilitary groups to defend it (IRA) during the period known as ‘the troubles’. The Grande Orange Lodge of Co. Armagh stated on the 30th September that the IRA army council had "stopped the law of the land from being enforced due to a threat of violence".
The distinction between civil and natural law was brought to Ireland by Christian missionaries, such as Saint Patrick who came from England. It was later modified by the introduction of Norman-French law with the conquest of Ireland in 1169 (at the invitation of Dermot MacMurrough deposed king of Leinster).
The first philosopher to discuss the unification of civil and natural law was Plato. His aim was to achieve justice by eliminating the distinction between manmade laws and philosophy and/or religion. He points out that the ideal city should be founded and administered according to nature (κατὰ φύσιν οἰκισθεῖσα πόλις = a city administered according to nature. Pl. R. 428e).
Irish protestants promoted this view. The first time the text of Plato was ever available in Ireland was in the library of John Usher (1625-1656) Archbishop of Armagh whose large library later became the heart of Trinity College Library in Dublin in 1661 as a gift of Charles II. The first printed book of Dublin University was a selection of dialogues of Plato in Greek in 1738. The font was provided by George Berkley (1685-1753), Bishop of Cloyne, and the book was printed by John Stearne (1660-1745), bishop of Clogher. These three prelates were Anglican. They provided the instruments to solve the dispute between civil and natural law which has yet again appeared at Drumcree.