Police block Orange Order from controversial parade route

The police prevented the Orange Order from making a controversial parade down a road which had previously been blocked by protesters.

A group of men tried to march from Drumcree Church down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown in the early hours of Monday but a line of police Land Rovers stood in the way.

They had been unable to make the permitted parade on Sunday morning because protesters had gathered on the mainly-nationalist Garvaghy Road. The stand-off continued throughout Sunday, with the Orangemen waiting at the church, around a mile from the road, for the go-ahead from police.

Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O'Neill joined the protest, prompting Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson to accuse her of acting unlawfully.

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant called for "compromise".

Breandán Mac Cionnaith, from the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, said he was meeting the secretary of state and chief constable on Monday and that he would not prejudge those conversations

Protesters started gathering on the Garvaghy Road in the early hours of Sunday, after the final court decision.

Dozens of armoured police vehicles arrived in the town, calling on them to clear the route while members of the Portadown District Lodge waited in a hall at Drumcree Parish Church.

At one point Orangemen began walking down Drumcree Road before stopping and turning back.

On Sunday evening, a large group of people joined the Orange Order, and police blocked the road with Land Rovers.

The Orange Order was warned that they were breaking the terms of the determination by having more than 35 people here, but loyalist activists argued they had not asked for a crowd.

The 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. The row sparked some of the most serious public disorder in Northern Ireland's history and was linked to several murders.

The row reemerged after a court case in which a ruling by the Parades Commission - the organisation formed during the Drumcree dispute to decide on contentious marches during Northern Ireland's parading season - was overturned.

On Friday, following 28 years of unsuccessful applications, the commission decided the march could go ahead with restrictions in place.

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.

However that decision was challenged in several Belfast courts on Saturday, before finally being given the go ahead just hours before it was due to take place.

For most of Sunday, police maintained a sterile zone between the two sides, while officers repeatedly called on protesters to disperse.

At Garvaghy Road, protesters were joined by members the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) and Sinn Féin, with First Minister Michelle O'Neill urging the crowd to "stay the course" to "at least" midnight.

Meanwhile other political leaders engaged with the Northern Ireland Secretary.

Sir Chris Bryant, who returned from the Labour Party conference for talks, urged both sides to "double down on compromise" and said "nobody should be attending an unlawful protest".

However, he added, it was not his job "to decide whether somebody has or hasn't broken the law".

Earlier, the first minister said the decision to permit the march "brings into question how the peace process works".

DUP leader Gavin Robinson accused O'Neill and other Sinn Féin politicians at the protest of being "lawmakers acting as lawbreakers".

After meeting Sir Chris at Hillsborough Castle, Robinson said the stakes for Stormont were high and "could get higher" if the Orange Order was unable to complete the parade, and there needed to be consequences for politicians he accused of breaking the law.

His party colleague, Carla Lockhart MP, warned of "profound" consequences if the Parade Commission's determination was not upheld.

SDLP leader Claire Hanna, who also attended the protest, called for de-escalation and said: "Whatever the legalities, it was never politically right or morally right to do this."

Following talks at Hillsborough, her party called for an international mediator to help resolve the dispute, with Sir Chris saying he is "giving consideration to anything that anybody comes up with".

He said he is determined to keep on working and talking with people, but added that "we haven't got a solution yet".

Also speaking after the meeting, 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. The law applies to everyone. It cannot be enforced basically on the basis of it might be politically inconvenient," he added.

Justice Minister Naomi Long described the stand-off as an "entirely avoidable conflict" and said politicians risked delivering "misery" to the people of Northern Ireland.

The police operation continued throughout most of Sunday, with Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Jon Boutcher telling reporters that officers had been gathering evidence from the outset.

"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."

Jon Boutcher said he had wanted a "sensible and peaceful conclusion" and hoped everyone involved could find "a place that they can, with dignity, walk away from the current situation".

He said success would mean "not one hair on one head gets harmed".

Church leaders also appealed for a peaceful resolution.

Catholic Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin and Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell called for an "urgent" and inclusive initiative to resolve the crisis, stating: "Too much is at stake."

Two schools in the area announced they would close on Monday because of the continuing situation, citing the safety and wellbeing of pupils, families and staff.

The Drumcree dispute was one of Northern Ireland's most serious parading disputes during the 1990s, when stand-offs over attempts by the Orange Order to march along the Garvaghy Road were accompanied by riots, roadblocks and killings.

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.