Claire Quinn
BBC News NI

At 08:00 BST, the Orange Order were set to parade down Garvaghy Road in Portadown for the first time in almost 30 years. The order's route was blocked by protesters who oppose the march.

Some nationalist politicians joined the crowd blocking road - Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald and First Minister Michelle O'Neill were among them, saying they stand with the residents.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson accused O'Neill and her party of breaking the law and "giving two fingers to the police, the courts and the rule of law".

Elsewhere, pressure mounted on Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant, with Sinn Féin calling for him to ban the parade - a move he can only make if requested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said he hoped to bring all of today's events to a "sensible and peaceful conclusion".

The main political parties in Northern Ireland met the Northern Ireland Secretary for talks at Hillsborough Castle this evening. Sinn Féin did not attend but spoke to the secretary of state over the phone.

Two schools in Portadown - St John the Baptist PS Bunscoil Eoin Baiste and St John the Baptist College - will close tomorrow due to the situation at Drumcree.

The Orange Order said late in the evening they were determined to stay and walk but protesters say they "stopped them [the Order] getting down" and intend to do so "permanently".

We're pausing this live coverage.

This page was written by Fiona Murray, Claire Quinn, Adam Mandeville, Lili Busby, Emmett McElhatton, Ross McKee and Adam Goldsmith, with reporting from Portadown from Kelly Bonner, Richard Morgan, Darran Marshall and Michael Fitzpatrick.

The Garvaghy Road is now cleared of protesters but about 20 to 30 residents are maintaining a presence.

Traffic is freely flowing down it.

Breandán Mac Cionnaith from the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition says he won't "pre-judge" before meetings with NI's chief constable and Northern Ireland Secretary on Monday..

"I'm going with our agenda. They'll go with theirs," he tells BBC News NI.

He says people have been in fear and worried about a return to "Drumcree in the 1990s".

"We have moved on from that and it's time everyone else did as well," he says.

He says his message to the Orangemen is: "Go home and have a bit of sense".

Hundreds of people have gathered to listen to Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition spokesperson Breandán Mac Cionnaith at midnight.

"We've stopped them once, the process now is to make sure we stop them permanantly," he tells the crowd.

He says residents will meet the chief constable and the secretary of state tomorrow.

"The message tomorrow - we've no intention of ever going back," Mac Cionnaith says.

"We're not going in to deals with them. We're not putting the clock back, we're putting the clock forward."

He asks some people to stay out on the streets tonight and says this is going to "drag on for a while".

Some members of the Orange Order continue to stand by the PSNI Land Rovers blocking the road at Drumcree.

They said earlier they are determined to march their intended route.

Meanwhile the Garvaghy Road protesters are still maintaining a presence.

Earlier First Minister Michelle O'Neill urged protesters to stay on the road until at least midnight.

The crowd is much smaller than it was earlier with many people heading home and it is quieter, but the road is still blocked.

Image source, PA Media

People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll says the residents of the Garvaghy Road "have nothing left to compromise".

Earlier the NI secretary said we need to find some kind of compromise so that people are able to go home,”.

But Carroll says residents have been "asked to hand over their safety and their dignity".

"Residents are standing on their road again this evening in the cold, because every institution that was supposed to protect them has failed them."

Nigel Dawson, Portadown District Master of the Orange Order, says that they are waiting patiently “for the police to fulfil their legal obligations” in relation to the parade.

He adds that they continued to engage with the police and would stay at Drumcree “until the police fulfil their legal obligations”.

“I am very disappointed and frustrated that there wasn’t a proper policing plan and operation put in place and that’s very frustrating given that the police have had in reality 28 years to prepare for this,” he adds.

“They have not policed the determination and they have a duty to do so.”

Portadown Deputy District Master Alastair Power, pictured above on the right, says they will stay here until they "complete our 1998 parade, which we set out this morning to do".

"But I have a question for leadership of nationalism tonight - are they for the rule of law? Because if they are, why can we not parade down our road?

"They stood in an illegal protest today on the Garvaghy Road and prevented this lodge from having its legal right to parade that route, which was determined by the Parades Commission on Friday."

Power then questions the First Minister Michelle O'Neill on her previous comments of being a "first minister for all" by asking: "Where's my rights?"

"I think society has to look at itself tonight and ask the question - has mob rule won today?"

Brian Rowan
Former BBC News NI security editor

Image source, Pacemaker

Over many years of reporting, and on many roads in this place, I have seen the scattered debris of politics, policing and parading; seen it at those flash-points and 'clash-points' where contested marches have been met by protest.

Rubble on the roads. The spent casings of plastic bullets.

The scorch marks left by burned out vehicles. The injured.

All of this in twisted picture frames that display and exhibit the opposite of peace.

This is not the debris we are looking at in television coverage and photographs from Portadown. The shrapnel is in the angry words that are being spoken.

And, once again, everything is on the line.

Read more from our former security editor here.

Belfast City Council group leader, councillor Brian Smyth from the Green Party, says there is now a clear case for independent international mediation.

"The people of the Garvaghy Road have been badly served by institutions and political parties that have used them as bargaining chips," Smyth says.

"Drumcree is a symptom of a bigger problem. Nearly three decades into peace, we have still never agreed a comprehensive mechanism for dealing with our past. Until we do, the same flashpoints will keep reopening, again and again."

In Portadown town centre hundreds of people are gathered tonight.

There's a small number of police officers monitoring the crowd.

This is the bottom of the Garvaghy Road.

A short distance away at Drumcree Church members of the Orange Order continue to wait for the police to facilitate the parade.

Portadown District Lodge say on Sunday night they are "still here because the police have failed to do their duty".

Michelle O'Neill is asked by BBC Ireland correspondent Sara Girvin about the DUP leader Gavin Robinson's comments that she had broken the law by participating in the protest.

She says in response: "I stand with the people of the Garvaghy Road today and every day."

The BBC reporter is then asked to contact the Sinn Féin press office.

After the Parades Commission’s decision to allow the march, an overnight 15-hour legal battle ensued.

Listen here.

Responding to the SDLP’s call for an international mediator in relation to the Drumcree dispute, Sir Chris Bryant says he is “giving consideration to anything that anybody comes up with".

“Obviously that is one of the suggestions that’s been around for a while, I am not sure who would be the right person who would be able to take that forward,” he adds.

“The truth is everybody has got to want to seek mediation and seek compromise and that’s what I’m trying to find, whether there’s that little chink on both sides that we can use to get to a decent compromise that means everybody can walk away with their head held high and their sense of honour.”

Sinn Féin has been calling for him to ban the parade - a move he can only make if requested by the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI).

He says he has not spoken to the PSNI chief constable this evening, but his officials have.

“Nobody is asking me to use any of the powers in the act," Bryant adds.

“I haven’t been asked by the PSNI to intervene to rule the determination out.”

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant says he has had discussions with all the main political parties in a bid to get a resolution to the Drumcree dispute, but adds that “we haven’t got a solution yet”.

He says he is determined to keep on working and talking with people.

“There’s a few ideas around about things we might be able to do and I’m happy to explore those and I’ll continue those conversations tomorrow,” he adds.

He says he has spoken twice with Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill this evening.

He urges “everybody to keep calm” and says it is “very important that people co-operate with police” both at Drumcree and across Northern Ireland.

“I have made it very clear that I think it is important that we get to a resolution and we need to find some kind of compromise so that people are able to go home,” he adds.

Speaking after meeting the secretary of state at Hillsborough, UUP leader Jon Burrows says the rule of law needed to apply to “everyone”.

“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.

“But look, I'm not calling for a crisis. I want a resolution, and I don't want the executive to fall," he says.

However, Burrows adds that Stormont has been “put under threat” by those who he says have “broken the law”.

We reported earlier that St John the Baptist PS Bunscoil Eoin Baiste was closing tomorrow due to the situation at Drumcree.

St John the Baptist's College has also announced that, in the "interest of everyone's safety and the escalating situation on the Garvaghy Road this afternoon", it will also close tomorrow.

Kelly Bonner
BBC News NI

Image source, PA Media

Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson says any suggestion that the Orange Order will not walk tonight is "emphatically untrue".

He says the chief constable has been told that "this parade must go ahead and we will wait here until it does".

The group of supporters have now moved back to Portadown Centre and the 33 Orange members are in the lodge with Carla Lockhart, Jonathan Buckley and Bryson.

A police presence is maintained along Drumcree Hill.