Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant has said he will ban the contentious Orange Order parade at Drumcree, acting on the 13th day of deadlock between Orangemen and nationalist residents of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown.
Sir Chris said the chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) had advised him that the procession could not be enabled “without a major intervention which would carry an unacceptable risk of serious injury, disorder and a wider contagion effect across Northern Ireland”.
The dispute has produced a stand-off lasting almost two weeks.
Secretary of state acts on chief constable’s advice
Legislation permits a secretary of state to overturn a Parades Commission determination, particularly after some form of input from the PSNI.
The Parades Commission had ruled that the march on Sunday 27 September could proceed with restrictions in place. The parade, which was to run from Drumcree Church into Portadown, did not take place because of a large protest on the Garvaghy Road.
Sir Chris had faced growing pressure from Sinn Féin and the SDLP to halt the parade.
On Friday night he said the Parades Commission had advised him that, while the matter was ultimately for the courts, the commission believed the original determination no longer had enduring legal effect in light of the chief constable’s current assessment.
“Consequently, and in the interests of wider public interest and safety, I’ve come to the conclusion that the circumstances under which that decision was made have now changed considerably,” he said. “As a result, the procession cannot go ahead as it was determined.”
Residents’ group: a win tinged with sadness
Breandán Mac Cionnaith, spokesman for the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition, spoke outside a community centre on the Garvaghy Road on Friday night. He said that “while this is a win for us tonight, it is one that is still tinged with sadness and with loss”, adding that there was no real cause for celebration because of the price paid over many years to reach the decision.
Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said the overwhelming feeling on the road was “one of relief and one of joy”, and that an “awful threat and this sense of menace has been lifted from the community”. She said the prospect of a march down the road had been incomprehensible, that nobody could believe the decision had been made, and that the community had said from the outset it would stand strong and united and would not have it.
Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin said in a social media post that the announcement would come as a significant relief to the community on the Garvaghy Road, and also to people in communities across Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland as a whole who had feared the situation at Drumcree could have lasting negative repercussions for community relations and reconciliation if left unresolved.
Unionist response
The Portadown District said it “notes the chief constable has abdicated his responsibility for policing Northern Ireland”, and that the secretary of state had bowed to a republican mob and rewarded criminality, adding that the consequences should be self-evident.
The district said it understood the immense anger engulfing its community that night, but urged calm. It also said it would have no further engagement with the PSNI.
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson said in a statement that it had been clear in recent days that, because of Sinn Féin’s actions and a total disregard for the recent determination in favour of a parade, the PSNI could not ensure the parade’s safe completion. He said the chief constable’s decision to refer the matter to the secretary of state, and his conclusion that the parade could not proceed, were a direct result of republican agitation, mobilisation and looming threats of potential violence. Robinson described the decisions as a mistake that sent profound signals that the country should be run on force of numbers and on who shouts the loudest.
Thirteen days of deadlock
There have been 13 days of deadlock in Portadown since the decision to allow an Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road on 27 September.
That morning, up to 1,000 people – among them politicians including Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill – blocked the road, preventing Orangemen from marching from Drumcree Church, a mile to the west.
Residents have kept a constant presence around the road since then, while Orangemen have repeatedly tried to march the route and been turned back by police.
Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said last week that the consequences of police forcing an Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road “could be catastrophic”. He said that while the PSNI’s objective was to facilitate the determination, this could not be done “at all costs”.
As of last Thursday, the policing operation over the dispute had cost about £3m.
Background
Exactly two weeks ago, the Parades Commission issued a determination allowing the Orange Order parade on the mainly-nationalist Garvaghy Road with restrictions in place. That prompted a legal challenge from the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition, which opposed the march.
The Court of Appeal is considering whether to allow a challenge to the Parades Commission’s ruling, which residents have lodged.
Drumcree was one of Northern Ireland’s most serious parading disputes, when stand-offs in the mid-to-late 1990s over attempts by the Orange Order to march along the Garvaghy Road were accompanied by riots, roadblocks and killings. When police prevented the Orange Order from walking the route in July 1995 there was a tense stand-off, and the same happened for the next three years.
The Parades Commission began operating in 1998 to regulate parades and try to defuse tension around marches. Its decision not to allow a march down the Garvaghy Road that summer has been challenged by the order for the past three decades.
Earlier this year the Parades Commission decided the march could go ahead with restrictions in place, after its original decision to stop the march was overturned in court. The Court of Appeal is also considering its ruling in the residents’ legal challenge to block the march.
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