When Africa came to Portadown
David Vance SubstackRead More
I visited a place called Portadown yesterday. You may not have heard of it but it has been in the news in recent days as nightly protests and riots descended upon it in the aftermath of the attempted decapitation in Belfast.
I know the place well. I went to Grammar School in it, my parents lived there for some years, my teenage years were heavily influenced by it. It was never a very big town, it’s at least semi-rural, and over the decades it has become quite divided between Protestants and Catholics. It was the scene of the now infamous Drumcree stand off – which I was it!
I moved away from Portadown by the mid-1980’s only returning when I stood for election in the constituency in 1998. It seemed relatively unchanged. I stood again for election in 2010 and things were now different. Entire streets that had been full of local people were now home to eastern europeans, many of who had come to work in nearby meat factories. The character had changed BUT they appeared to have started to integrate and I did not detect real tension. Maybe I missed it?
By 2020, a decade on, it was now very noticeable. Significant number of African and South East Asia migrants had moved into town. Timorese was widely spoken. There is an entire street just off the High Street where English is rarely heard.
And the tinder box was lit. I don’t blame the migrants – I blame the politicians who presided over this.
Now, in 2026, the local population’s resentment at all of this has boiled over. Frustration at being ignored as their communities are swamped has reached fever pitch. And the violence has begun.
I do NOT approve of violence against the Police, people and property. But I do understand the local psyche. Frankly, they have had enough of this. Their political leader pay lip service but they see that.
Moving undocumented migrants into this area is not going to be option any longer if local anger persists. In fact, it looks like some might have to move it.
To give you a taste for what drives this anger, have a watch of this video. It shows an African woman in the nearby town of Dungannon, taking to the street outside her hair braiding shop, having fun re-enacting the attempted decapitation of local man Stephen Ogilvy in Belfast.
Utterly depraved. She was subsequently arrested but it sends a TERRIBLE signal.
Why should be tolerate any of this?
So I paid Portadown a visit yesterday and recorded a short livestream. As I was speaking in the centre of the town, several African gentlemen gathered a few feet from where I was standing. They may well be here lawfully, I cannot say.
The better question is – do local people want them here?
The answer is from what I can see is – no.
By way of a little light relief, one young protester was arrested by the police in the town centre and then this happened…
Dark humour. He got away.
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