Assembly Members clashed in Stormont over the Drumcree Parade, as Unionist MLAs accused Sinn Féin and the SDLP of breaking the law by standing in protest on Garvaghy Road.
Speaker Calls for Order
Speaker Edwin Poots began proceedings by calling for members not to engage in a way which “inflames tensions”, but on several occasions he had to call the Assembly to order.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly accused First Minister Michelle O’Neill of breaking the law and encouraging others to do so.
Accusations of Law-Breaking
Speaking in the Northern Ireland Assembly, the DUP MLA said there was a “total abdication of leadership”.
She said: “Michelle O’Neill decided to follow the law of the mob and not the law of the land, and that matters.
“Decided, with so many others on the benches across from me, to stand shoulder to shoulder with IRA members, with IRA and dissidents.”
Sinn Féin Response
Sinn Féin MLA John O’Dowd said the parade was steeped in a history of “murder, violence, intimidation and supremacy”.
He said: “We stood on the Garvaghy Road over the weekend to ensure that they will never, ever be returned to second-class citizenship in this society, and that no-one will be beating the people off the streets ever again.
“The people of the Garvaghy Road, the people of Portadown, are being used by those people who want to draw this society backwards.”
Unionist Criticism
DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley said there seemed to be “one standard for Unionists and a different for Republicans.”
He said: “The public are right to be angry. There must be consequences for lawmakers who become law- breakers.
“Seeing Sinn Féin and SDLP representatives linked arms illegally across a road with known violent dissident Republican terrorists must have consequences.”
Further Reactions
Garvaghy Road residents are “under siege by toxic Orange triumphalism”, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said, responding to criticism from the DUP.
He said: “What stopped the march at the weekend wasn’t a determination or a judge.
“It was over thousands of ordinary people linking arms in the rain for hours on end, and there’s an important lesson in that that some should do well to learn.
“[The DUP is] a party up to its eyeballs in scandals that reaches for sectarianism every single time to distract and divide and look the other way.”
Former first minister, DUP MLA Paul Givan, said Orange Order members have been vilified.
He said: “Thirty-five Orangemen silently parading at 8am on a Sunday morning on their way home from church.
“And what is their crime? Purely for being Protestant. That is the sectarian motivation of those who are in opposition to it.
“They are engaged in a direct attempt to incite violence, to instil hatred. Do not respond to their dog-whistle tactics.”
TUV MLA Timothy Gaston said: “Sinn Féin are gaslighting nationalism to hide their own failures, their failures of being on the wrong side of history when it comes to immigration which is putting people within Northern Ireland at risk.
“No Casement Park, no A5, no Irish language signage at Grand Central, all those things that they were beating their chests and saying they would deliver.”
First Minister's Statement
Speaking afterwards at Members’ Statements, First Minister Michelle O’Neill said she was proud to protest with the residents of Garvaghy Road who “have suffered generations of sectarian domination, intimidation and violence”.
The Sinn Féin deputy leader said: “May I invite all those within Unionism into 2026? The days of Unionist supremacy and domination are gone. We will not be going backwards. We are about the future.
“I think those people that wanted to force this march down that road need to give their heads a shake.”
