Sinn Féin and DUP exchange bitter words in Stormont over Drumcree stand-off

Main Points

• Police maintained a presence near Drumcree Parish Church in Portadown this morning.
• It followed the dispersal of protesters after midnight who had blocked a contentious Orange Order parade proceeding along Garvaghy Road on Sunday.
• Stormont First Minister Michelle O’Neill had encouraged protesters to the “stay the course” and remain on the road until at least midnight.
• Under parading legislation, protests against parades must be notified and approved by the Parades Commission adjudication body.
• The blockade on the Garvaghy Road was an unnotified gathering and police repeatedly told protesters they were liable for arrest for blocking the road.
• The presence of O’Neill and other senior Sinn Féin figures at the blockade prompted accusations of law breaking from unionists.
• DUP leader Gavin Robinson said Northern Ireland had been plunged into difficult territory because of the actions of people “expected to be lawmakers in our country breaking the law”.

Key Reads

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Taoiseach pays tribute to PSNI’s actions in Drumcree stand-off

Taoiseach Micheál Martin says the Government remains “very, very concerned” about tensions in Drumcree.

Martin said there is an “obligation on everybody now to stand back and to mediate an outcome” in the best interests of the people of Northern Ireland.

The Taoiseach said that events over the last few days have threatened to undermine community relationships.

Loyal order members remained at Drumcree in Portadown on Monday after a weekend of tension in the Co Armagh town. Their planned parade was stopped by police as officers were concerned about the scale of a mass protest on part of the proposed route – the predominantly nationalist Garvaghy Road.

Orangemen attempted to commence their parade on several occasions, including in the early hours of Monday morning, but police halted them on each occasion.

The parading dispute has erupted again after the Parades Commission adjudication panel granted permission for a limited parade down the Garvaghy Road for the first time in almost 30 years.

Speaking to reporters in Cork, Martin said: “I pay tribute to the PSNI, who have been left in a very, very difficult – if not somewhat impossible – position, and I appreciate the leadership of chief constable Jon Boutcher, who said his over-riding concern was that no-one would be harmed in the context of what was transpiring over the last 48 hours.”

He said no-one wants to go back to the divisions of the past and the “trauma” experienced at the Garvagh Road.

Asked about Sinn Féin calls for Secretary of State Sir Chris Bryant to overturn the Parades Commission decision to allow an Orange Order march in the area, Martin said: “I would say to Sinn Féin and to everybody else: Time to dial back now and time to engage in dialogue, and to work this out in a sensible, community-based way.

“Over the last number of decades, community relations in this area has improved immensely and very significant work has been put in by residents’ groups, by community groups, to develop community relationships, put them on a much more sustainable level.

“What’s happening over the last number of days threatens to undermine all of that and I think we have to stand back, have a clear vision as to the future – the future has to be one of engagement, of dialogue, working through these problems as we did in the past, and to avoid the tensions and the trauma and the divisions of the past.”

Mr Martin also said it would be a “very retrograde step” for the Drumcree dispute to lead to the collapse of Stormont, adding it would not be in the best interests of the people of Northern Ireland.

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Michelle O’Neill accused of ‘extreme discourtesy’

Stormont speaker Edwin Potts has accused Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill of “extreme discourtesy”.

O’Neill was not in the Stormont chamber on Monday to answer questions about the Drumcree stand-off.

O’Neill has been at Drumcree over the weekend.

Poots said Michelle O’Neill “needs to come and answer to the community of Northern Ireland” after she did not show up to the Assembly to answer an urgent oral question on the dispute.

Addressing the Assembly, Mr Poots said: “It is unprecedented – unprecedented – for a minister not to come to this House whenever the Speaker’s office has made that call.

“You may not like the call that the Speaker’s office made, but it is gross discourtesy to everyone in the House that you choose not to do it.”

O’Neill has insisted she was in Drumcree in her status as Sinn Féin deputy leader and not as First Minister.

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DUP leaders warns that it can no longer be ‘business as usual’ at Stormont

The DUP has insisted it cannot be business as usual at Stormont as the party vowed to take action against Sinn Féin after senior members, including the First Minister, participated in an unlawful protest against a loyal order parade.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson had been facing calls from unionist rivals to collapse the powersharing institutions over the furore around the Drumcree parade in Portadown but he opted for a different approach on Monday, making clear he did not intend to be “reckless”.

However, Mr Robinson said his party would pursue a “pathway” and initiate a “range of actions”.

He said that would include complaints to the Assembly’s Commissioner for Standards, calls for censure and motions of no confidence.

He said there was also a “clear requirement” for the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) to “prosecute anyone who has broken the law” – Press Association

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Sinn Féin and DUP exchange bitter words in Stormont over Drumcree stand-off

Assembly Members clashed in Stormont over the Drumcree Parade, as Unionist MLAs accused Sinn Féin and the SDLP of breaking the law by standing in protest on Garvaghy Road.

Speaker Edwin Poots began proceedings by calling for members not to engage in a way which “inflames tensions”, but on several occasions he had to call the Assembly to order.

Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly accused First Minister Michelle O’Neill of breaking the law and encouraging others to do so.

Speaking in the Northern Ireland Assembly, the DUP MLA said there was a “total abdication of leadership”.

She said: “Michelle O’Neill decided to follow the law of the mob and not the law of the land, and that matters.

“Decided, with so many others on the benches across from me, to stand shoulder to shoulder with IRA members, with IRA and dissidents.”

Sinn Féin MLA John O’Dowd said the parade was steeped in a history of “murder, violence, intimidation and supremacy”.

He said: “We stood on the Garvaghy Road over the weekend to ensure that they will never, ever be returned to second-class citizenship in this society, and that no-one will be beating the people off the streets ever again.

“The people of the Garvaghy Road, the people of Portadown, are being used by those people who want to draw this society backwards.”

DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley said there seemed to be “one standard for Unionists and a different for Republicans.”

He said: “The public are right to be angry. There must be consequences for lawmakers who become law- breakers.

“Seeing Sinn Féin and SDLP representatives linked arms illegally across a road with known violent dissident Republican terrorists must have consequences.”

Garvaghy Road residents are “under siege by toxic Orange triumphalism”, People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll said, responding to criticism from the DUP.

He said: “What stopped the march at the weekend wasn’t a determination or a judge.

“It was over thousands of ordinary people linking arms in the rain for hours on end, and there’s an important lesson in that that some should do well to learn.

“[The DUP is] a party up to its eyeballs in scandals that reaches for sectarianism every single time to distract and divide and look the other way.”

Former first minister, DUP MLA Paul Givan, said Orange Order members have been vilified.

He said: “Thirty-five Orangemen silently parading at 8am on a Sunday morning on their way home from church.

“And what is their crime? Purely for being Protestant. That is the sectarian motivation of those who are in opposition to it.

“They are engaged in a direct attempt to incite violence, to instil hatred. Do not respond to their dog-whistle tactics. ”

TUV MLA Timothy Gaston said: “Sinn Féin are gaslighting nationalism to hide their own failures, their failures of being on the wrong side of history when it comes to immigration which is putting people within Northern Ireland at risk.

“No Casement Park, no A5, no Irish language signage at Grand Central, all those things that they were beating their chests and saying they would deliver.”

Speaking afterwards at Members’ Statements, First Minister Michelle O’Neill said she was proud to protest with the residents of Garvaghy Road who “have suffered generations of sectarian domination, intimidation and violence”.

The Sinn Féin deputy leader said: “May I invite all those within Unionism into 2026? The days of Unionist supremacy and domination are gone. We will not be going backwards. We are about the future.

“I think those people that wanted to force this march down that road need to give their heads a shake – Press Association

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‘We will not be going backwards’, O’Neill tells Assembly

First Minister Michelle O’Neill said she was proud to protest with the residents of Garvaghy Road who “have suffered generations of sectarian domination, intimidation and violence”.

Speaking in the Northern Ireland Assembly, the Sinn Féin deputy leader said: “May I invite all those within unionism into 2026? The days of unionist supremacy and domination are gone. We will not be going backwards. We are about the future.

“I think those people that wanted to force this march down that road need to give their heads a shake.

“Why do the Orange Order, why do the DUP, why does unionism in general want to railroad over the rights of these people? Why do you want to trample over these people?

“Well, we will not accept that. The Garvaghy Road residents do not want that.

“They are entitled to live their life free from fear and intimidation. I will assert that right for them all day long and every day. This is 2026, folks, and we are not going back.” – PA

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Breandán Mac Cionnaith from the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition has accused the Orange Order of “pulling a stunt” by attempting to complete its Dumcree parade overnight.

Arriving at Hillsborough Castle for a meeting with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant, Mac Cionnaith said: “Pulling stunts like they did this morning in Portadown isn’t going to help this process or any process.

“Mediation is not a problem for us.”

He added: “The Orange Order did attempt to have a parade down from Drumcree Church down Drumcree Road, and get to the Garvaghy Road.

“What can that be except a stunt deliberately designed to raise tensions before this meeting.

“If somebody started walking round your house at four o’clock in the morning, your driveway, would you not be concerned?” – PA

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Little-Pengelly accuses O’Neill of ‘total abdication of leadership’

Northern Ireland’s Deputy First Minister, Emma Little-Pengelly, has accused First Minister Michelle O’Neill of breaking the law over the weekend, claiming there was a “total abdication of leadership”.

“When the situation called for calm heads, Michelle O’Neill called people onto the streets, joined them and called for them to stay there.

“When her obligations were to uphold the law, Michelle O’Neill not only broke the law but encouraged others to do so,” the DUP MLA said, speaking in the Northern Ireland Assembly on Monday afternoon.

“The courts upheld the basic civil rights and human rights of the Portadown Orangemen. That’s what the courts did. It was scrutinised and they upheld that.

“That was denied by Michelle O’Neill and Sinn Féin and other people who decided to defy the law.” – PA

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Taoiseach Micheál Martin has praised the PSNI’s handling of the standoff at Drumree between the Orange Order and residents of the Garvaghy Road, Southern Correspondent Barry Roche reports.

Speaking in Cork on Monday, Martin rejected suggestions the PSNI were out of touch with local sentiment when advising the Parades Commission on the issue.

“I want to pay tribute to the PSNI who have been left in a very difficult and somewhat impossible position.

“I appreciate the leadership of chief constable Jon Boutcher who said his overriding concern is that no one would be harmed in the context of what was transpiring over the past 48 hours.”

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Orange Order hails ‘very constructive’ meeting with NI Secretary

A delegation from the Orange Order has met Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant to discuss the Drumcree parading dispute.

Speaking after the meeting, which lasted an hour, district master Nigel Dawson said it was a “very constructive and detailed meeting”.

“We expect to probably hear from him again later on in the day, or from his officials.

“We are now returning back to Drumcree, where we left this morning.”

Asked if the determination for the Drumcree parade was still live, Dawson said he spoke to PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher earlier on Monday morning, adding: “The determination is still a live document.” – PA

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Assembly members told not to ‘inflame tensions which are already high’

At Parliament Buildings at Stormont, the ongoing stand-off at Drumcree and the events of the weekend on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown are under discussion in the Assembly chamber, writes our Northern Editor, Freya McClements.

Meanwhile, the Secretary of State, Chris Bryant, is holding meetings at Hillsborough Castle, and is understood to have met the Orange Order in the last hour, and is about to meet with Breandán Mac Cionnaith of the Garvaghy Road Residents Association.

Opening proceedings at the Assembly on Monday afternoon, the Speaker, Edwin Poots, reminded members they should “not … seek to deliberately inflame tensions which are already high.”

Describing it as a “pretty difficult weekend”, he said “we all need to recognise that in this house.

“It is my view that it is much better than these matters are dealt with here in this democratic institution than they are dealt with on the streets,” he said.

DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley said it “simply cannot be business as usual in this place” and accused the First Minister, Michelle O’Neill, of “conducting the orchestra on the Garvaghy Road, taking part in and encouraging participation in what was an unlawful protest, [which] represents a flagrant breach of the law and her obligations under the pledge of office.”

Describing the First Minister as “actively engaged in criminality,” he said there “must be consequences for lawmakers who become law breakers.

“Seeing Sinn Féin and SDLP representatives linked arms illegally across a road with known violent dissident republicans must have consequences,” he said.

Sinn Féin MLA John O’Dowd, who was among those present at the protest on the Garvaghy Road at the weekend, said the parade was “steeped in a history of murder, violence, intimidation and supremacy” and his party members would continue to stand with the residents.

They had done so at the weekend, he said, “to ensure they will never, ever be returned to second-class citizenship in this society, and that no one, no one on behalf of anyone, will be beating the people off the streets every again.

“So what is this all about? The people of the Garvaghy Road, the people of Portadown, are being used by those people who want to draw this society backwards.

“They are being used by elements which are not acting in their interest,” he said.

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SDLP leader says she ‘acted within the law’ at protest

SDLP leader Claire Hanna has defended her presence at the protest on the Garvaghy Road over the weekend, saying she was “very comfortable that I acted within the law”.

Both the DUP and TUV have accused elected officials of “breaking the law” by attending the protest.

Hanna, an MP for South Belfast said her party has held the line on civil rights, social democracy, anti-sectarianism and cohesion in society for decades.

“The SDLP has taken all opportunities to try and build cohesion in society.

“We don’t look away from difficult issues, we don’t look away from residents like that on the Garvaghy Road.

“We are committed to keeping stability and the show on the road here.” – PA

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The Taoiseach added it was “very important” that all parties in the Northern Ireland Assembly do not allow the Drumcree dispute to “undermine institutions”.

Asked if he was concerned about the future of Stormont, Martin said it would be a “very retrograde step if anything was done to undermine the institutions, notwithstanding the legitimate concerns that people have, and notwithstanding all of the tensions”.

“People have to think ahead and have a look around corners here, and make sure that any actions they take are in the best interests of all of the people on the island of Ireland and in Northern Ireland specifically, in terms of the Executive,” he said.

Asked if he accepted that relations between Sinn Féin and the DUP were at an all-time low in the last five years, Martin said tensions were “very clear”.

“I understand where people are coming from, but ultimately, the whole essence of the peace process, all along, has been that you put to one side as best you can your own sort of particular position with a view to the common good.

“And I would appeal to everybody involved to think of the common good, what’s in the best interests of the people of Northern Ireland, and I don’t believe the collapse of the institutions is in the best interests of the people of Northern Ireland.”

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Taoiseach tells Sinn Féin and others to ‘dial it back’

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has told Sinn Féin and “everybody else” to “dial it back now”, saying dialogue was needed to resolve the Drumcree dispute in a “sensible and community-based way”, Southern Correspondent Barry Roche reports.

Speaking to reporters in Cork on Monday morning, Martin said he remained “very concerned” about the Drumcree dispute, saying there was an obligation on all to “stand back” and mediate an outcome that is in the best interests of “everybody”.

“No one wants to go back to the past divisions and trauma that we experienced at the Garvaghy Road and Drumcree,” he said.

Martin was asked if the presence of senior Sinn Féin officials, including First Minister Michelle O’Neill, on the demonstration line with Garvaghy Road residents would undermine the power-sharing agreement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP).

“I would say to Sinn Féin and everybody else – dial it back now. It is time to engage in dialogue and work this out in a sensible and community-based way,” he said, adding that community relations in the area had “improved immensely” over recent decades.

“Very significant work has been put in by residents groups, by community groups to develop community relationships and put them on a much more sustainable level.

“What is happening over the past number of days threatens to undermine all of that,” he said.

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Drumcree dispute ‘deliberately orchestrated’, says Alliance leader

The Drumcree parade dispute was “deliberately orchestrated” to bring down political institutions in Northern Ireland, Alliance leader Naomi Long has claimed.

Speaking on BBC Radio Ulster on Monday morning, Long, who is also Northern Ireland’s Justice Minister, said:

“It is my view, rightly or wrongly, that there are those who deliberately orchestrated this conflict in order to ensure that Stormont would be in trouble, who have been opposed to devolution from the outset and who have manipulated this situation to that end.”

Long believed there was “little commitment now from other parties to continue in Stormont in any meaningful way, that yes it is in trouble.”

“I don’t think that that’s new, Stormont is almost permanently in a state of almost collapse.

“I have concerns as Justice Minister that there is a culture of lawlessness across our society, where if you don’t get the outcome you want, you simply kick back against the law, draw the police into conflict and blame them instead of taking responsibility.”

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Drumcree: Where are we now and what happens next?

Portadown may not be as bitter a place as it was in the 1990s, but it remains one of the most divided communities in Northern Ireland, writes Ireland and Britain Editor Mark Hennessy.

The peace process may have brought relative peace to Northern Ireland, but it has brought little harmony to Portadown.

Read his analysis here.

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Gaston said Sinn Féin’s response to the parade was “nothing short of a disgrace” and “very much puts these institutions beyond repair”.

He also said Portadown Orangemen have been “dignified, respectful” and claimed that they have “taken into account those residents on the Garvaghy Road”.

“The Sinn Féin hysteria that has followed shows that that they are still unfit for office,” Gaston added.

Meanwhile, TUV Councillor Ron McDowell said he plans to report a number of Sinn Féin MLAs to the Assembly Commissioner for Standards over their participation at the protest on the Garvaghy Road over the weekend.

McDowell said he will submit a report and seek an investigation into First Minister Michelle O’Neill, as well as John O’Dowd, Deirdre Hargey and Carál Ní Chuilín.

He said he wants to see an investigation carried out into their presence and participation in the protest and whether the Sinn F̩in MLAs were encouraging the protest. РPA

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‘No parade, no Stormont’, says TUV politician

The Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister is facing calls to bring down the Stormont institutions by resigning from her post following the ongoing dispute at Drumcree.

Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) MLA Timothy Gaston said the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) should withdraw Emma Little-Pengelly from her role over Sinn Féin’s presence on Garvaghy Road over the weekend.

“The court has ruled, a number of times, that this parade should take place and there is an onus on the chief constable, the secretary of state and the justice minister to ensure law and order applies,” Gaston said, speaking to media at Stormont on Monday morning.

“No parade, no Stormont,” he said.

“The First Minister can only hold the position if there is a deputy First Minister. The line has been crossed.

“The actions of Michelle O’Neill being present on the road and encouraging others to stay and stand on the road is enough to breach her pledge of office.

“The trap door should be open, First Minister should be out of post, no ifs, no buts. The DUP cannot sustain these institutions that allows a First Minister to brazenly ignore the law to continue to hold office in Northern Ireland.

“She has shown she is not First Minister for all. She is more interested in First Minister for the Garvaghy Road residents. The line is crossed. I believe at this stage the Executive is unsustainable,” he said. – PA

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‘He has to resign now’: Orange Order representative calls for PSNI chief constable to step down

A senior Orange Order member has called for PSNI chief constable Jon Boutcher to resign over his handling of the Drumcree parade dispute.

Portadown deputy district master Alastair Power said that Boutcher must “resign now”, as he vowed to remain until the parade “is finished”.

Speaking at Drumcree Church on Monday, Power said:

“We have been told by the chief constable that they do not have the resources to police the parade down the road and we are pressing them that this needs to be done. We have a live determination and this parades needs to be completed.

“We are here until that parade is finished, regardless of what that looks at the hill. We have told the chief constable that there is a live determination and that needs to be policed. We are pressing for that to be done today.”

Power said that if the PSNI cannot police the parade, then the police chief “has to go”.

“He has to resign. He has said he can police any determination in Northern Ireland but he can’t,” he added.

“His hands have been tied by the state and he won’t allow this parade to go under public order so he has to go. He has to resign now.” – PA

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A small number of protesters, some with their faces covered, are beginning to gather on Garvaghy Road, PA reports.

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Five Orange Order members walked to the police line close to Drumcree Church shortly after 9.30am on Monday but were told by an officer they were not permitted to proceed.

After a member of the public walked along the road, the five members removed their collarettes and walked again to the police line.

After again being stopped, Portadown deputy district master Alastair Power asked the officer to confirm that a member of the public was allowed to walk down the road but his colleagues were not.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) is maintaining a 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. – PA

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Reacting to Buckley’s comments, Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy said members of several parties – including the SDLP, People Before Profit, Aontú and the Social Democrats – went to Garvaghy Road.

He said they “stood up for a community’s right, given under the Good Friday agreement, to live free from sectarian harassment”.

“The decision of the Parades Commission is just illogical and any rational person would have known that it would have opened up old wounds,” he said.

Carthy said he agreed “entirely” with Taoiseach Micheál Martin that its decision was “incomprehensible and wrong”.

He disagreed that the Orange Order abided by the Parades Commission ruling over the past 28 years, saying:

“When the Parades Commission initially indicated that the march wouldn’t be permitted down the Garvaghy Road, they instigated widespread rioting and protests and a campaign of intimidation across six counties,” he said.

Carthy argued it took the “murder of three young boys” to “actually result in the protests being called off”, referencing the 1998 murders of three Catholic children – Richard, Mark and Jason Quinn.

The three boys were murdered in a petrol bomb attack on their home in a predominantly Protestant housing estate in Ballymoney.

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Carthy calls on NI Secretary to overturn Parades Commission ruling

Sinn Féin TD Matt Carthy has called on Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant to “use his legal authority to intervene” and make it “absolutely clear there will be no return to the days of Orange supremacy”.

Speaking on Monday morning, Carthy confirmed he wanted Bryant to overturn the Parades Commission’s ruling to allow the march on Garvaghy Road.

Should that not happen, Carthy said he believed another application would be submitted to the Parades Commission, which would have “no option” but to refuse permission.

Carthy said Garvaghy Road residents have “been through too much” and will not “permit a return of those dark days”, adding they would continue to protest should the march be permitted.

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Stormont placed in ‘very difficult place’, DUP politician says

Powersharing institutions at Stormont have been placed in a “very difficult place”, DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley has said.

Speaking on Monday morning, Buckley claimed Sinn Féin has “no regard for the rule of law”, and that representatives including First Minister Michelle O’Neill “took part in an illegal protest”.

Asked if the DUP is considering withdrawing from Stormont, Buckley, who is from Portadown, said Sinn Féin has “placed the institutions in a very difficult place”.

“We have at the core of our institutions a commitment to the rule of law. Sinn Féin have now broken that pledge. That is of extreme interest,” he said.

Buckley said the parade was a “threat to absolutely nobody”, adding it was “never about a domination, it was about accommodation”.

He claimed the protest held on Garvaghy Road was a “mob rule”.

“35 Orangemen marching in silence, no bands, no triumphalism, no victory, is about accommodating people that live in our community, and I think that that was core,” he said, speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland.

“None of them want to see a disturbance, none of them want to see violence on our streets and none of them want to have bad relations with their neighbours but they want to be accommodated,” he said.

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Police maintain presence in Portadown

Police are maintaining a presence near Drumcree Parish Church in Portadown this morning.

Five PSNI Land Rovers are lining the road close to where a small group of Orange Order members have stayed overnight.

A contentious Orange Order parade was unable to proceed on Sunday after protesters had gathered on the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road about a mile away.

There were no protesters on the Garvaghy Road early on Monday. – PA

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Stormont ‘has to survive’, SDLP leader says

Stormont “has to survive” the fallout of the Drumcree parade, SDLP leader Claire Hanna has said.

Speaking on Monday morning ahead of another meeting with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant, Hanna said the collapse of Stormont “does nothing”.

“The institutions should survive because collapsing them solves nothing, and no matter how much we’re grinding each other’s gears at the moment, somebody has to make decisions about the everyday.

“Too often, we have reached for these collapse mechanisms only to have to come back six months later, and health services and economic opportunities and infrastructure have declined.

“It’s difficult, but creating a vacuum and taking away the place where we have a chance to resolve these issues solves nothing,” she said, speaking on RTÉ Radio’s Morning Ireland.

Hanna, who also joined Garvaghy Road residents over the weekend, said it was a “very challenging situation”, though she argued that those behind the application to march “framed it as part of a culture war”.

During a meeting between Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant and party leaders on Sunday night, Hanna said they called for de-escalation and a political process to “get the dispute off the streets”.

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DUP ‘unclear’ on future of powersharing Executive

For now, the next steps of the Orange Order are unclear, writes Mark Hennessy

It has made clear that it will stay “an hour, a day, or 10 days” to vindicate its rights.

However, it cannot do this under the legislation without going back to the Parades Commission to secure fresh permission to march down the road.

The Parades Commission’s permission last week was based significantly on a judgment by the PSNI that a march by the Orange Order on the Garvaghy Road would not provoke major public order issues – a judgment regarded as “madness” by Sinn Féin and sharply criticised by the SDLP.

The escalating political row over the parade has tested Stormont’s stability, less than nine months before Northern Ireland’s voters go to the polls.

In Belfast, Gavin Robinson, the DUP leader, was asked whether he was prepared to continue to work with Sinn Féin.

If either the DUP or Sinn Féin withdrew from Northern Ireland’s powersharing Executive, the devolved government would effectively collapse.

“Our party is maintaining the dignity of the Portadown Orangemen as they have shown determination and patience, so will we,” said Robinson.

“I can look at you all in the eye today and say we are being plunged into difficult territory because of the actions of people who are expected to be lawmakers in our country breaking the law.

“The fundamental principle of upholding the rule of law in this society are sacrosanct and cannot be tarnished.”

Earlier, Sinn Féin vice-president O’Neill told reporters on the Garvaghy Road that the reignition of the Drumcree dispute “brings into question how this whole peace process works”.

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Calls for calm from Martin, Burnham

British prime minister Andy Burnham has appealed for “calm on all sides” over the Drumcree march dispute, saying there have been “big gains made in Northern Ireland, and we don’t want to see things go backwards”.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin also urged calm as he expressed concern about the situation.

Martin has described the decision by the Parades Commission to allow a parade to go down the Garvaghy Road for the first time in nearly three decades as “incomprehensible and wrong”.

The parade was finally given the go ahead at a court hearing that concluded at 2.15am on Sunday after opposing legal teams outlined their arguments over the parade.

The hearing was one of three separate emergency legal challenges before the courts in Belfast across Saturday and into early Sunday.

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Northern Ireland Secretary to meet disputing sides

The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Bryant is set to face fresh demands to block any possibility of the Orange Order being allowed to march down Garvaghy Road, writes Mark Hennessy

The legal permission won by the Orange Order after lengthy court battles on Saturday to march from Drumcree Church of Ireland to its headquarters in Portadown expired at midnight.

The order now requires a fresh application to the Parades Commission to see if its march is legal under 30-year-old legislation.

However, the Northern Ireland Secretary has the power to overrule everyone, including the courts, and ban the march, though it is clear that Bryant, who was appointed to the job just two months ago, does not want to follow that route.

On Sunday night, Bryant urged “everybody to keep calm” and to co-operate with police as he pushed for a resolution and to find “some kind of compromise so that people are able to go home”.

He confirmed he would continue talking to all the main political parties on Monday following discussions on Sunday after cutting short his attendance at the Labour Party conference in Liverpool to travel to Belfast.

He has said he did not have the powers to call off the march unless police formally requested him to do so.

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Michelle O’Neill claims ‘victory’

Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said the Garvaghy Road community had won a “victory” in the Drumcree march dispute.

“This community do not want this, they do not want this march,” she told reporters before leaving the area shortly after midnight on Monday morning.

“And tonight, I believe, is another victory for this community in standing steadfast for the right to live free from sectarian harassment and intimidation.”

The presence of O’Neill and other senior Sinn Féin figures at the blockade prompted accusations of lawbreaking from unionists.

Under the North’s parading legislation, protests against parades must be notified and approved by the Parades Commission adjudication body.

The nationalist blockade on the Garvaghy Road was an unnotified gathering. O’Neill and other ministers in the Stormont Executive are bound by a pledge of office that contains a commitment to uphold the law.

“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,” DUP leader Gavin Robinson told media in Belfast on Sunday.

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Protesters disperse after being told of ‘process’ to address Drumcree dispute

Nationalists who blockaded a road in Portadown to stop an Orange Order parade have mostly dispersed after being told by a community leader that a fresh process to address the dispute was being initiated.

The stand-off between residents of the Garvagy Road, a Catholic estate in a largely Protestant town, and Orangemen seeking to march down the road follows two days of rising tensions that raise questions over the ability of Northern Ireland’s Stormont institutions to survive.

At the height of the blockade, thousands of people gathered on the Garvaghy Road throughout Sunday to prevent the Orange Order parade from nearby Drumcree Church from passing along the route.

The protest, which was illegal under parading legislation in Northern Ireland, involved senior Sinn Féin politicians, including Stormont’s First Minister Michelle O’Neill and party president Mary Lou McDonald.

The blockade continued through the day and late into the night.

At about midnight, Breandán Mac Cionnaith from the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition, told protesters they had secured a “victory”.

He said he would meet Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant and Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Jon Boutcher on Monday morning for talks on the Drumcree parade.

Mac Cionnaith said he had received “commitments” that the parade would not be proceeding overnight.

He asked for 20 to 30 volunteers to remain on the road to ensure those commitments were not broken.

“We’ve stopped them once. The process now is to ensure we stop them permanently,” he said.

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