Sinn Féin leaders interviewed by police over protest participation

Sinn Féin leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill have been interviewed by police officers investigating their participation in an allegedly unlawful protest in Portadown last month.

The demonstration on the predominantly nationalist road was staged amid efforts to prevent an Orange Order parade passing down the route from nearby Drumcree Church.

Ms McDonald and Ms O’Neill attended Musgrave Street Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) station on Wednesday afternoon for arranged interviews.

The senior republicans were among several Sinn Féin politicians to receive letters from the PSNI asking them to attend Musgrave Street station for interview.

Orangemen make their way from Drumcree Church where police formed a barricade to prevent them entering the Garvaghy Road (Brian Lawless/PA)

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Under parading laws in Northern Ireland, protests must be notified to, and approved by, the Parades Commission adjudication body.

Police are carrying out an investigation into the unnotified protest on the Garvaghy Road on the day the parade was meant to proceed and said invitations to attend interviews had been sent to individuals “reasonably suspected of committing offences”.

A Parades Commission decision to allow the Orange Order parade to proceed down the Garvaghy Road for the first time in almost 30 years prompted a two-week stand-off at the site of what was a notorious parading flashpoint during the Troubles.

The parade was ultimately unable to take place because of significant numbers of protesters on the Garvaghy Road, leading Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant to overturn the commission’s decision and ban the procession.

PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has previously made it clear there would be “consequences” for those found to have broken the law.

Speaking to reporters on her way into the police station, Ms McDonald said standing with the people of the Garvaghy Road was the “right thing to do”.

“We stood on the Garvaghy Road to support that community at a time of great pressure and vulnerability, at a time where the peace and peace of mind of that community was under real threat, at a time where their right to live free from sectarian harassment was directly under threat,” she told reporters.

“We stood with them shoulder to shoulder because that was the right thing to do. In fact, it was the only thing to do.

“It was what was demanded of us as leaders, and what was demanded of us to stand firmly on the side of progress and to defend almost 30 years of peace.

“We said then, and we have said since then, that there is no going back.

“We will only move forward. We are not going back to the dark days of the past.

“We said also that we would co-operate with any processes arising from that decision that we took, and so we are here today to have an interview and to co-operate fully with the PSNI.”

First Minister Michelle O’Neill (left) and Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald arrive at Musgrave St police station in Belfast (Brian Lawless/PA)

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The Sinn Féin president said she and her party colleagues had made their decision to stand with the residents of the Garvaghy Road with “our eyes wide open”.

“We have taken our decisions because it is the right thing to do and the only thing to do,” she added.

“And we are now, of course, here to co-operate with the processes arising from that.”

Ms O’Neill made clear she would not be resigning as Stormont First Minister if she was prosecuted.

“It was always the right thing to do to stand on the Garvaghy Road,” she told reporters outside the PSNI’s Musgrave Street station.

“We made a choice to stand with those residents who were very much threatened with the fact that all the 28 years of peace and progress for that all to be unravelled and undermined.

“This is a community that deserved our leadership, a community that deserved our attention, and it’s a decision that we are very proud of.

“We also said that we would engage with whatever processes come our way.

“That’s what today is about. So let’s go in and let’s do the interview, and we will participate as we said we would.

“But I am going nowhere. I am going to keep turning up for people. I am the First Minister and that is my job.”

The two leaders were inside the police station for around 90 minutes.

They did not speak to waiting reporters as they left shortly after 6pm.

Earlier, an Assembly committee at Stormont ended in acrimonious scenes after Ms O’Neill walked out amid heated exchanges, insisting she had a “hard stop”.

The Sinn Féin vice president indicated she was leaving the Executive Office committee hearing at Stormont as she had to attend the police station for interview.

After the First Minister’s departure, DUP deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, who had appeared alongside Ms O’Neill to face questions from MLAs on Wednesday afternoon, offered to stay on to answer more questions but she was advised that would not be in line with protocol.