Hundreds of protesters blocked a road in Portadown, County Armagh on Sunday, preventing a contentious Orange Order march from taking place.
The Drumcree parade, which in the 1990s sparked some of the most serious disorder in Northern Ireland’s history, was due to go ahead for the first time in 30 years after a series of legal challenges.
Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill, who is also vice-president of Sinn Féin, joined the protesters, as members of the Order and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politicians gathered about a mile away, waiting for the road to clear.
Most of the protesters have since dispersed, but some members of the Order remain and still intend to try and march.
The Orange Order is a Protestant pro-British organisation, while the area where it wants to walk – specifically along the Garvaghy Road – is largely Catholic and predominantly inhabited by pro-Irish nationalists.
Many Catholics see the marches as sectarian and object to them passing through, or close to, Catholic or nationalist areas.
Late on Sunday night, the Order’s local deputy district master said he was “disappointed and frustrated” by what he called a lack of a “proper policing plan” to allow the march to go ahead.
Nigel Dawson, who remains at Drumcree Parish Church, insisted the Order would “complete our 1998 parade, which we set out this morning to do”.
Asked if the 35 Orange Order members would consider going home for the night, he told BBC News NI: “Absolutely and unequivocally no.”
Breandán Mac Cionnaith, from the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition (GRRC) which was protesting against the march, said: “We said they weren’t getting down and we stopped them getting down.”
Addressing protesters as they cleared the area on Sunday night, he said their goal now was to “make sure we stop them permanently”.
He also asked some residents to remain on the streets, saying he thinks the stand-off is going to “drag on for a while”.
Mac Cionnaith said they will meet the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable and the Northern Ireland secretary on Monday.
He told BBC News NI “we’re going to sit down and see how this can be avoided so this community doesn’t have to go through this ever again”.
Protesters started gathering on the Garvaghy Road in the early hours of Sunday, after the march was given the go ahead.
Dozens of armoured police vehicles arrived later, with officers calling on protesters to clear the route.
The march was meant to begin no later than 08:00 BST, but police told the Orange Order that the road was not clear to begin. Protesters continued to block the road throughout the day.
First Minister O’Neill, who had joined protesters, said the Garvaghy Road community had won a “victory”.
“This community do not want this, they do not want this march,” she said shortly after midnight on Monday morning.
“And tonight, I believe, is another victory for this community in standing steadfast for the right to live free from sectarian harassment and intimidation.”
Earlier, she had urged protesters to stay on the road until at least midnight.
DUP leader Gavin Robinson said O’Neill was breaking the law by protesting, and had “broken her pledge of office”.
Speaking earlier on Sunday, he said “it is shameful that we see on the streets of Portadown, a first minister, a collection of ministers and series of elected representatives who are participating in an unlawful protest”.
Sinn Féin has been contacted for comment.
PA Media‘We haven’t got a solution yet’
Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant, who returned from the Labour Party conference for talks, urged both sides to “double down on compromise”.
He said “nobody should be attending an unlawful protest”, but he added it was not his job “to decide whether somebody has or hasn’t broken the law”.
Sir Chris met politicians from the DUP, the Alliance Party, the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) and the Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) on Sunday evening.
Sinn Féin said, while they had agreed to meet, the form did not suit the secretary of state. Sir Chris said he had been in discussions with the party’s vice president, O’Neill, on Sunday evening.
Sir Chris said “there are a few ideas around” about how to move forward, but that “we haven’t got a solution yet”.
Earlier on Sunday, Prime Minister Andy Burnham appealed for “calm on all sides”, saying there have been “big gains made in Northern Ireland, and we don’t want to see things go backwards”.
Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin also appealed for calm, but he said he found the original decision by the Parades Commission to approve the march “incomprehensible and wrong”.
While at the protest, First Minister O’Neill was asked if she thought Stormont could collapse over Drumcree.
She replied: “The progress of the last 28 years have been brought into question by the actions of the Orange Order and those within political unionism that want to drag us backwards.
“What’s the point? What’s the point whenever people are going to railroad over their rights?”
DUP MP Carla Lockhart said the first minister was “whipping up hysteria” at an unlawful protest, and warned of “profound” consequences if the Parade Commission’s determination is not upheld.
SDLP leader Claire Hanna, who was at the protest, called for “political leadership” and said it was “necessary to de-escalate”. Her party has called for an international mediator to help resolve the dispute.
Meanwhile, UUP leader Jon Burrows said the rule of law needed to apply to “everyone”, and that Stormont has been “put under threat”.
“It is vital that everyone obeys the law. I don’t care who that is. I don’t care how senior you are,” he said.
Justice Minister Naomi Long, from the Alliance Party, said there was a “predictability about all of this”, calling it an “entirely avoidable conflict”.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said the policing operation “helped ensure there has been no violence or disorder”.
The last 24 hours have been “very challenging for our people”, he later told reporters at the Waterfront, adding that the police have been “evidence gathering”.
“So whatever’s been happening, by whatever party, we’ve been gathering the evidence of what they’ve been doing,” he said. “So we’ll deal with that at the right time.”
Boutcher said he wants everybody to find “a place that they can, with dignity, walk away from the current situation”, but added that there needs to be a “longer-term conversation”.
What is the Garvaghy Road dispute all about?
Pacemaker PressThe Orange Order, the most prominent of the loyal orders associated with Protestants in Northern Ireland, holds thousands of parades every year and the vast majority pass off without incident.
However, many Catholics see the marches as sectarian and object to them passing through, or close to, Catholic or nationalist areas.
The Garvaghy Road had been part of the Drumcree route, but by the mid 1990s nationalist residents protested against the parade.
When the Orange Order was prevented by police from walking down the route in July 1995, there was a tense stand-off. It was the same for the next three years.
Violence related to the dispute resulted in riots, roadblocks and murders across Northern Ireland.
In 1998, the newly-established Parades Commission ruled that the Orange Order should not march down the road – a decision upheld until Friday, when it said the march could go ahead along Garvaghy Road for the first time in 30 years.
Rather than start at 13:00 on Sunday as intended, the commission said it could begin no later than 08:00 – and with 35 participants rather than the 60 the Orange Order requested.
An initial legal challenge from the road’s Residents’ Coalition (GRRC) at the High Court saw a judge issue an injunction banning the parade – but this was later successfully challenged by an Orange Order member at the Court of Appeal.
Late on Saturday evening, the GRRC was given permission to challenge that decision at the High Court, an appeal which was dismissed by Justice Humphreys.
In a hearing concluding at 02:15 BST on Sunday morning, Justice Humphreys said: “This court cannot substitute its own view or anyone else’s view for that of the commission.”
