PROTESTERS 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.
Police are maintaining a presence near Drumcree Parish Church in Portadown.
Five PSNI Land Rovers are lining the road close to where a small group of Orange Order members have stayed overnight. There were no protesters on the Garvaghy Road early on Monday.
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 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, waiting to commence their parade.
Around 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 down the Garvaghy Road overnight.
He asked for 20-30 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.
On his planned meetings on Monday, he added: “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.”
O’Neill also said the Garvaghy Road community had won a “victory”.
“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.”
Earlier, the Northern Ireland Secretary appealed for calm and urged political and community leaders to reach for compromise to resolve the deepening dispute over the Drumcree parade.
He held talks with political leaders on Sunday night, but no resolution emerged.
The presence of Ms O’Neill and other senior Sinn Féin figures at the blockade prompted accusations of law-breaking from unionists.
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. O’Neill and other ministers in the Stormont Executive are bound by a pledge of office that contains a commitment to uphold the law.
On Sunday, police repeatedly notified the protesters through a loudspeaker that they were liable for arrest for blocking the road.
On Sunday evening, O’Neill had encouraged protesters to “stay the course” as she urged them to remain on the road until at least midnight.
DUP leader Gavin 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 told media in Belfast on Sunday afternoon.
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.
Protesters, some wearing balaclavas or other face coverings, clustered in large groups in heavy rain along the Garvaghy Road on Sunday morning – a move that delayed the scheduled 8am start of the parade.
The Orangemen waited at the church throughout the day.
Around 6pm, several of them emerged from the church hall and walked down the hill where they were met by police. A crowd of supporters subsequently gathered with the Orangemen.
Officers told senior members of the institution that they could not have more than 35 people on the hill – as that was a restriction placed on the parade by the commission.
By 10pm the numbers on the hill beside the church had dwindled to a small presence.
A spokesperson for the Orangemen said they would continue to wait in the church hall, adding, “We demand the parade goes ahead”. Their supporters relocated to Portadown town centre.
Loyalist activist Jamie Bryson, who worked closely with the Orangemen on their legal challenge against the long-standing ban, accused the police of failing to act against those participating in the blockade.
“We have spoken directly to the PSNI and called them out for their utterly abominable conduct,” he posted on social media.
“There is no excuse. Not a single step have they taken against the lawbreakers. Not one.”
Two schools in Portadown have announced they will close on Monday due to the parading dispute.
The escalating political row over the parade is set to test the stability of the power-sharing institutions in Belfast.
