N Ireland march fuels anger, concern
OLD WOUNDS: Protestant marchers seized on an overturned injunction to stage a march, which drew thousands of counterprotesters to block the road in Portadown
Staff writer, with AFP and Reuters
UK leaders called for calm as a tense standoff with residents seeking to halt a pro-British Protestant march through a primarily Catholic area stretched into the night on Sunday, in one of the worst crises for Northern Ireland in the past few years.
The tensions were triggered after a Belfast appeal court overturned a High Court injunction in the early hours of Sunday to clear the march by the Orange Order to go ahead for the first time since 1997.
The Parades Commission, Northern Ireland’s independent body regulating contentious processions, had authorized 35 Orangemen to march silently along Garvaghy Road in Portadown, without bands or supporters on Sunday.
Orangemen and supporters, top, gather at Drumcree Church after being stopped by police from marching to Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Northern Ireland, on Sunday.
Photo: AFP
But as night fell on Sunday, the Orangemen were still trying to carry out their march. About 2,000 protesters including Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Claire Hanna, the leader of Irish nationalist party SDLP, blocked the route on Sunday.
This led to a standoff, with both sides declining to disperse and police between them, with marchers blocked from proceeding.
UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham appealed for “calm on all sides,” saying that “big gains” had been made in Northern Ireland “and we don’t want to see things go backwards.”
Northern Ireland was blighted for three decades by conflict between largely Catholic, pro-Irish republicans and Protestant, pro-UK unionists.
During the late 1990s, the Garvaghy Road became a major flashpoint.
The Orange Order is a pro-British organization that takes its name from William of Orange, the Protestant Dutchman who seized the English, Scottish and Ireland throne from Catholic King James II in 1689.
The head of the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition told protesters late on Sunday that he would meet Northern Ireland Minister Chris Bryant and the chief of police after receiving commitments that the march would not proceed overnight.
He asked that a small number of volunteers remain on the road through the night to ensure the commitments were not broken, the BBC reported.
“We’ve stopped them once, the process now is to stop them permanently,” Breandan Mac Cionnaith told the protesters.
SECURITY PRESENCE
There was a heavy security presence on Sunday in the Portadown area, 40km southwest of Belfast, with armored police vehicles and a helicopter overhead.
O’Neill, of the Irish republican Sinn Fein party, condemned the late-night court ruling.
She said she supported “the right of the Garvaghy Road residents to protest against this unwanted sectarian march.”
Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald told reporters as she walked with the counterprotesters that the “residents and community have come out to defend their right to live free from sectarian harassment.”
Since the 1998 Good Friday peace accords ending the so-called Troubles in Northern Ireland “there has been lots of progress ... it has been transformational. People’s lives have been changed fundamentally,” McDonald said. “We are not going back.”
LEGAL CHALLENGES
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson called for “unanimous condemnation” of O’Neill, accusing her of “breaking the law” by ignoring the will of the courts.
“Our party is maintaining the dignity of the Portadown Orangemen — as they have shown determination and patience so will we,” he told reporters.
On Saturday evening, a group of Orangemen left the church and walked down the hill, where they were met by a line of police who refused to let them pass.
Bryant flew in from the Labour Party conference in Liverpool to try to ease the situation through talks.
He said he wanted to meet “face to face” with political leaders and community leaders “to see if we can get to a settled position”.
A Belfast High Court judge had temporarily blocked the parade on Saturday, saying the long-running dispute could escalate across Northern Ireland.
Just before midnight on Saturday, a three-judge Court of Appeal panel overturned the injunction.
Carla Lockhart, a local MP from the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, called the ruling “seismic.” She said residents had nothing to worry about.
“Thirty-five men walking down a road silently with no bands in an orderly fashion; there is nothing to fear,” she said.
The Parades Commission was established in 1998, the year the Good Friday Agreement largely ended three decades of conflict over British rule known as the Troubles.
It barred the Orange Order from completing the route that year and has consistently rejected subsequent applications.
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