Drumcree Church

Drumcree Parish Church
The Church of the Ascension
Drumcree Parish Church
54°26′25.6″N 06°27′34.2″W / 54.440444°N 6.459500°W / 54.440444; -6.459500
Location	Drumcree Road, Portadown
Country	Northern Ireland
Denomination	Church of Ireland
Website	www.drumcree.org
History
Consecrated	28 October 1856
Architecture
Groundbreaking	17 May 1855
Administration
Parish	Drumcree
Clergy
Rector	Rev Gary Galway

Drumcree Parish Church, officially The Church of the Ascension, is the Church of Ireland parish church of Drumcree in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It sits on a hill in the townland of Drumcree, outside Portadown. It is a site of historic significance and is a listed building.^[1]

There has been a church on the site since the Middle Ages. The foundation stone of the present church was laid on Ascension Day in 1855, and the church was consecrated the following year. The current rector is the Reverend Gary Galway, previous curate of St. Marks Parish in Portadown. The Church of Ireland parish of Drumcree has the same boundaries as the Roman Catholic parish of Drumcree.

For several years in the 1990s, the church drew international attention as the scene of the Drumcree standoffs. Each year, the Protestant Orange Order marches to-and-from a service at the church on the Sunday before 12th July. Residents of the nearby Catholic district prevented the march from continuing through their neighbourhood. Thousands of Orangemen and loyalists gathered at Drumcree and violently tried to force their way through, but were held back by the security forces, who built large steel and barbed wire barricades. These yearly "sieges" of Drumcree ended in the early 2000s.