Orangemen remain at Drumcree with efforts set to find solution to parade dispute

Orange Order members remain at Drumcree in Portadown with efforts set to intensify on Monday to find a political solution to a contentious parade which brought thousands of protesters on to the streets.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is maintaining a low-key presence near Drumcree Parish Church where a number of loyal order members stayed overnight in the expectation of completing their march through the Co Armagh town.

There were no protesters on the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road on Monday morning.

However, at the height of the blockade on Sunday, thousands of people gathered on the road to prevent the parade from the nearby Drumcree Church from passing along the route.

Loyalist supporters face the police outside Drumcree Church (Peter Morrison/PA)

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The mass gathering, which was illegal under parading legislation in Northern Ireland, involved senior Sinn Féin politicians, including Stormont’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill.

It was organised after Orangemen managed to overturn a long ban on them parading down the predominantly nationalist road.

The blockade continued through the day and late into the night, as Orangemen assembled at Drumcree Church around a mile from the road waited to commence their parade.

Orange members made a number of attempts to begin their march, including in the early hours of Monday, but were prevented by police.

With tensions still high in the area, Breandán Mac Cionnaith from the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition, said he would meet Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant and PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher on Monday morning for talks on the Drumcree parade.

On his planned meetings on Monday, he said: “That process starts tomorrow when we go in and meet the chief constable and we’ll meet the secretary of state.

“We’re not going in to do deals with them, or to take half measures with them.

“We said the other day, and we said yesterday, and the day before – we’re not going back, we’re not turning the clock back.

“We’re putting the clock forward.”

The Drumcree dispute is also expected to feature heavily at Stormont on Monday, with relations between powersharing partners Sinn Féin and the DUP seriously damaged.

Northern Ireland First Minister and Sinn Féin vice president Ms O’Neill was among those on the Garvaghy Road on Sunday, which led DUP leader Gavin Robinson to accuse her of “breaking the law”.

First Minister Michelle O’Neill (centre left) and Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald (centre right) at the Garvaghy road on Sunday (Peter Morrison/PA)

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Ms O’Neill said: “This community do not want this, they do not want this march.”

Under parading legislation in the region, protests against parades must be notified and approved by the Parades Commission adjudication body.

The blockade on the Garvaghy Road was an unnotified gathering.

Ms O’Neill and other ministers in the Stormont Executive are bound by a pledge of office that contains a commitment to uphold the law.

Mr Robinson said Sinn Féin leaders needed to face consequences for their actions.

“We can’t have a situation where people who have the privilege of holding high office in Northern Ireland so flagrantly disregard the pledge of office and statutory underpinnings of their office,” he said.

Protesters ahead of a Portadown District Loyal Orange Lodge (LOL) No 1 march in the first parade along the Garvaghy Road (Peter Morrison/PA)

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The Northern Ireland Secretary has appealed for calm and urged political and community leaders to reach for compromise.

He held talks with political leaders on Sunday night, but no resolution emerged.

A ruling by the Parades Commission permitting the Orange Order march from Drumcree Church and along the Garvaghy Road was upheld in an “unprecedented” late-night sitting of the High Court in Belfast in the early hours of Sunday morning.

The Drumcree parade, which was associated with violent clashes during the Troubles, has been banned since 1998.

The stand-off at Drumcree made headlines in the 1990s, with nationalist residents of the Garvaghy Road opposed to the parade passing through the area, leading to violent clashes for several summers and political tension necessitating major security operations.

The Orange Order has unsuccessfully applied for more than a quarter of a century to complete its 1998 walk along its traditional route.

On Friday, the commission reversed its long-running determination and granted permission for the parade – a decision welcomed by unionist parties and met with outrage from nationalist and republican parties.

Permission was granted for a parade subject to strict restrictions, including a limit of 35 participants and an 8am start time.