Orangemen remain at Drumcree Church 24 hours onpublished at 08:05 BST
08:05 BST
Claire Graham
in Portadown
As the sun starts to rise over Portadown, it’s 24 hours since the Orangemen were to set off for the Garvaghy Road.Where I’m standing at the moment, on the Drumcree Road, just beside the stone Drumcree Parish Church, the lodge are still here and so are the police.
The men had tried even in the last couple of hours to make their way down the road again, they walked In silence and were stopped by three PSNI landrovers.There is frustration. The Orange Order say they have a legal right to get down this road and the police should facilitate their route along the Garvaghy Road.
That’s something that the DUP MP also said to me a short time ago. Carla Lockhart arrived back at around 03:00 and spent over an hour here.
She said the chief constable needs to take a grip of this very quickly or his position will become untenable.
Up until about midnight there were still hundreds of people on the Garvaghy Road.
Breandán Mac Cionnaith, from the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, told the crowd he was meeting the secretary of state and chief constable today but that he would not prejudge those conversations.
Beside him as he spoke, the Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O’Neill and party president Mary Lou McDonald.
The majority of the protesters then left the road.
What happens next this morning – we can’t be sure. But for now, the Portadown lodge say that they aren’t stepping away from this church unless it’s to finish their walk.