A standoff over the contentious Drumcree parade continues a week on from when the march was originally supposed to go ahead. A major policing operation has been put in place for the weekend with both sides in the dispute organising rallies to bolster support, with positions entrenched in the run-up to a further legal challenge.
Parades Commission decision
Northern Ireland’s Parades Commission has given the green light for the unionist Orange Order – backed by the DUP and TUV – to march through Garvaghy Road for the first time in 30 years. Residents in the largely nationalist area around the road – backed by Sinn Féin, the SDLP and People Before Profit – are opposed to the parade, which was due to start last Sunday morning, and unsuccessfully fought the decision in court.
Several of the residents then protested by blocking the 35-man contingent of the Portadown District Orange Order from progressing through Garvaghy Road, resulting in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) refusing to give the Orange Order the go-ahead to proceed. Under parading laws in Northern Ireland, protests must be notified to, and approved by, the Parades Commission adjudication body.
Unlawful protest
Police have confirmed the protest was unnotified to the commission and therefore unlawful. Several high-profile politicians, including Northern Ireland First Minister and Sinn Féin deputy leader Michelle O’Neill, participated in the unnotified protest. Now entering the eighth day of a standoff, the Orangemen have tried numerous times to begin the march but the road remains blocked by residents.
A fresh legal bid against the march is to be heard at the Court of Appeal in Belfast on Monday, with lawyers for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition arguing that the Parades Commission had “materially misdirected itself” on the police assessment of the potential for disorder and had not given an “accurate representation of the evidence received from PSNI” in its decision.
Political reactions
Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant appealed for calm in the run-up to the weekend, stating that he had “hope people can still find further compromise” despite chairing talks during the week which ended without agreement. Sir Chris’s description of the impasse as being between “a rock and a hard place” was derided as “nonsense” by Ms O’Neill.
Speaking to reporters on Saturday as thousands of people gathered in support of the residents, she said: “The Secretary of State is tone deaf to the needs of Garvaghy Road. He has a superficial understanding of the needs of this community and we’re not going to tolerate it.” Deputy First Minister and DUP MLA Emma Little-Pengelly described the rally as “electioneering” as she criticised Ms O’Neill and Sinn Féin for a “complete abdication of leadership”.
Ulster Unionist Party leader Jon Burrows, a former senior police officer, also described the large-scale gathering as a “carnival of law-breaking and triumphalism” as well as a “serious failure of political leadership” by Sinn Féin. Sir Chris, who chaired talks with both sides during the week which were unsuccessful at reaching an agreement, said a prolonged stand-off in Portadown is “ultimately in nobody’s interests”.
He appealed for the public to ignore “unhelpful” calls for more people to come to the area “at this time of tension”, as he said he was working to find a “mutually acceptable solution”. Ms O’Neill said the right outcome “includes no march down this road” as Sinn Féin called on Sir Chris to use his powers to prohibit the march.
Rival gatherings
However, at a rival gathering at the loyalist Edgarstown Estate, backers of the Orangemen argued that the permission for the parade is still live and needs to go ahead. Portadown District master Nigel Dawson told the Press Association: “We’re still waiting for the chief constable to do his job and put the parade down the road as per our legal determination and backed up by a High Court judge.”
Chief Constable Jon Boutcher and the British Government were criticised by several speakers at the “Let Them Home” community gathering, including loyalist activist and legal adviser to the Orangemen, Jamie Bryson, and TUV leader Jim Allister. Both men argued that either the parade should be allowed to go ahead or the Northern Ireland Executive should be collapsed.
Mr Allister said there was a “fundamental challenge to political unionism” and particularly the DUP, stating: “It is either the Portadown Orangemen come home or the Executive is gone.” The TUV leader also accused the chief constable of a “gross abdication of duty” over not allowing the parade to go ahead thus far, adding that Sir Chris is “dithering and doesn’t want to do his job”.
DUP Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart, whose party is in powersharing with Sinn Féin in the Executive, told the gathering: “We stand in Northern Ireland at a crossroads for the PSNI and the British Government. They either accept mob rule or the rule of law – and I can tell you now if mob rule wins there’s no going back for the chief constable.”
Police warning
After the rally in support of the residents on Saturday, PSNI Assistant Chief Constable Anthony McNally said anyone blocking the Garvaghy Road will still be treated as “participating in an unnotified and therefore illegal protest”. The senior office said evidence gathering remains ongoing and anyone found to have broken the law “will face criminal justice consequences”.
Mr Bryson previously said Orangemen will accept the determination of the courts on Monday, challenging Garvaghy Road residents to do the same. In a speech on Saturday, Breandán Mac Cionnaith, of the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition, said there was “no logical reason” why the Orange march should proceed “through the heart of this community”, contending an alternative route “back the way they came” was available. “Garvaghy Road was solved in 1998, it does not need to be solved again.” Mr Mac Cionnaith said: “Westminster thinks we must make concessions – we have nothing left to concede.” He added: “Only one decision that’ll be acceptable: There should be no Orange march – none at all.”
