Since the current Drumcree stand-off began last Sunday, Carla Lockhart has emerged as a prominent figure at the heart of the dispute, backing Portadown Orange Order in their bid to march on the predominantly nationalist Garvaghy Road.
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Lockhart → begin → Road
Alongside loyalist activist Jamie Bryson and her DUP colleague Jonathan Buckley, Lockhart has been present at Drumcree, in her role as current Member of Parliament for Upper Bann, the constituency containing Portadown and as a supporter of the Orange Order’s position on the parade.
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Lockhart → contain → parade
Jonathan Buckley, Carla Lockhart, Jamie Bryson and Diane Dodds give a reaction after the High Court granted a temporary injunction blocking the controversial Orange Order parade.
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Court → give → parade
Photo: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images
Lockhart was also pictured outside the High Court in Belfast on Saturday, September 26, alongside Mr Bryson, Mr Buckley and the DUP’s Diane Dodds after the court granted an injunction preventing the parade from going ahead.
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court → picture → parade
Later that night, the Court of Appeal overturned that decision, thus allowing the parade to go ahead and leading to the current impasse, with protestors and supporters blocking the route.
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protestors → overturn → route
The 41-year-old DUP woman was seen leaving the court with Timothy Gaston of the Traditional Unionist Voice and has been a regular fixture in the contentious legal battle, even before the ongoing stand-off kicked off last weekend.
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off → see → battle
But who is Carla Lockhart and why is she so embroiled in events at Drumcree?
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she → embroil → Drumcree
Lockhart was born and bred on a farm outside Aughnacloy, the middle of three children.
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Lockhart → bear → children
It was a Christian household, and she credits her parents, Valerie and Kenneth, for teaching her values such as hard work, respect and staying true to her roots.
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she → credit → roots
She attended Aughnacloy College before studying at the University of Ulster, graduating in Business Studies.
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She → attend → Studies
While at university, Lockhart became interested in politics, joining the DUP’s Young Democrats, the party’s youth wing.
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Lockhart → become → Democrats
She cites former DUP leaders Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson as political inspirations.
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She → cite → inspirations
In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph in 2020, she recalled how Paisley had been a ‘very influential figure’ in her home growing up, and how she’d canvassed for him in the European elections when she was young.
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she → recall → elections
After graduating from university, Lockhart secured a post working for the DUP MLA Stephen Moutray as an assistant and political researcher.
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Lockhart → graduate → assistant
Six months later, she was co-
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she → co → ?
opted on to Craigavon Borough Council in place of Fergie Dawson, who died suddenly.
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who → opt → Dawson
During her tenure on the council, Lockhart became mayor, and at 26, was the youngest ever mayor of Craigavon.
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Lockhart → become → Craigavon
In 2014, she was elected to the new ‘super council’, Armagh, Banbridge and Craigavon District Council.
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she → elect → council
Three years later she stepped down to run for the Northern Ireland Assembly elections and was elected as MLA for Upper Bann that same year.
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she → step → Bann
In 2019, Lockhart became an MP for Upper Bann in Westminster and stepped down from her role as MLA.
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Lockhart → become → MLA
At the time she said she was ‘truly humbled’ to be representing Upper Bann in Westminster.
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she → say → Westminster
Five years later, she retained her seat, increasing her share of the vote, despite the wider decline in the DUP’s North of Ireland-wide vote share.
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she → retain → share
Carla Lockhart speaks to the media outside Hillsborough Castle, regarding the standoff between the Garvaghy Road residents and the Drumcree Orange Order standoff.
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Lockhart → speak → residents
Photo: Sasko Lazarov/RollingNews.ie
As a politician and member of the DUP, Lockhart is known for her hardline, Right-wing views and strong pro-union position, using her maiden speech in the House of Commons to call on the British Government to stop legislation for abortion laws for Northern Ireland.
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Lockhart → know → Ireland
Since then, she has also urged the British Government to stop the puberty blockers trial, spoken out about the costs of funding asylum seekers and the scale of illegal immigration, and called for Belfast rappers Kneecap to be denied entry to the US and Canada.
She was also vocal in her opposition to plans to introduce Irish language street signs in Portadown, claiming they were part of a scheme to ‘cleanse this area of Protestantism’.
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they → urge → Protestantism
In June this year, Lockhart hit the headlines after she was pictured at a protest in Scarva in Co Down, standing near to a group of masked men.
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she → hit → men
The counterdemonstration had been organised against a Palestine solidarity walk.
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counterdemonstration → organise → walk
Her appearance alongside the masked men prompted criticism from other political parties in the North, including the SDLP, whose leader, Claire Hanna, described the images as ‘bleak and disturbing’.
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leader → prompt → images
Lockhart, however, refused to back down, writing in a social media post that she ‘will never apologise for standing with my community’, and that she had been on the ground to prevent ‘tensions escalating’.
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tensions → refuse → ground
DUP MP Carla Lockhart and Jamie Bryson speak to police at this week's standoff.
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Lockhart → speak → standoff
Picture: Jonathan Porter/PressEye
A month later, Lockhart’s conduct at Scarva was called into question during a High Court review concerning the Parades Commission decision preventing the Orange Order from marching along the Garvaghy Road.
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conduct → call → Road
The MP had written a letter supporting the Portadown Orangemen’s position, arguing that circumstances had changed since the original Drumcree dispute and asking the Parades Commission to make a fresh assessment.
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circumstances → write → assessment
Referring to Lockhart’s presence at the Scarva protest on June 6, Mr Justice McAlinden said that it had to be taken into consideration when weighing up her representations on behalf of the Orange Order.
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it → refer → Order
McAlinden subsequently quashed the original Parades Commission ruling preventing the parade along Garvaghy Road from going ahead and a fresh application was made.
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application → quash → Road
On September 25, the Parades Commission gave the go-ahead for a restricted Orange Order parade along the Garvaghy Road – the first since 1998 – with a maximum of 35 participants.
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Commission → give → participants
The march has yet to take place due to the ongoing protests by angry residents and supporters, and it is this issue which has put Lockhart in the frontline again.
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which → have → frontline
Other areas of interest which Lockhart has spoken about in her role as MP include women’s health, mental health, suicide prevention and special needs education.
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Lockhart → speak → health
She and her husband Rodney have a son, seven-year-old Charlie, and in a previous newspaper interview, she talked about the ‘difficult journey’ to get there.
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she → have → journey
‘At times we weren’t sure if we would have children,’ she said.
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she → have → children
‘It was a difficult journey, and I have spoken before about the pain of miscarriage and those children we lost before we could meet them.
uncertain
we → speak → them
…and 25 more, not listed.
The Aporia
