{"id":638321,"date":"2026-09-28T08:10:14","date_gmt":"2026-09-28T08:10:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/638321\/"},"modified":"2026-09-28T08:10:14","modified_gmt":"2026-09-28T08:10:14","slug":"ni-secretary-to-hold-talks-after-protesters-block-orange-order-parade-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/638321\/","title":{"rendered":"NI Secretary to hold talks after protesters block Orange Order parade \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Main PointsPolice are maintaining a presence near Drumcree Parish Church<\/a> in Portadown this morning. This follows the dispersal of protesters after midnight who had blocked a contentious Orange Order<\/a> parade proceeding along Garvaghy Road on Sunday. The Secretary of State for Northern Ireland Chris Bryant is set to hold talks this morning with Garvaghy Road residents, the Police Service of Northern Ireland among others. Stormont\u2019s First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill had encouraged protesters to the \u201cstay the course\u201d 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 rThe presence of Ms O\u2019Neill and other senior Sinn F\u00e9in 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 \u201cexpected to be lawmakers in our country breaking the law\u201d.Key Reads<\/p>\n

Jack White – 17 minutes ago<\/p>\n

Stormont placed in \u2018very difficult place\u2019, DUP politician says<\/p>\n

Power-sharing institutions at Stormont have been placed in a \u201cvery difficult place\u201d, DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley has said.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Monday morning, Buckley claimed Sinn F\u00e9in has \u201cno regard for the rule of law\u201d, and that representatives including First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill \u201ctook part in an illegal protest\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if the DUP is considering withdrawing from Stormont, Buckley, who is from Portadown, said Sinn F\u00e9in has \u201cplaced the institutions in a very difficult place\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have at the core of our institutions a commitment to the rule of law. Sinn F\u00e9in have now broken that pledge. That is of extreme interest,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Buckley said the parade was a \u201cthreat to absolutely nobody\u201d, adding it was \u201cnever about a domination, it was about accommodation\u201d.<\/p>\n

He claimed the protest held on Garvaghy Road was a \u201cmob rule\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201c35 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,\u201d he said, speaking on RT\u00c9\u2019s Morning Ireland.<\/p>\n

\u201cNone 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,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Jack White – 50 minutes ago<\/p>\n

Police maintain presence in Portadown<\/p>\n

Police are maintaining a presence near Drumcree Parish Church in Portadown this morning.<\/p>\n

Five PSNI Land Rovers are lining the road close to where a small group of Orange Order members have stayed overnight.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

There were no protesters on the Garvaghy Road early on Monday. – PA<\/p>\n

Jack White – 57 minutes ago<\/p>\n

Stormont \u2018has to survive\u2019, SDLP leader says\"SDLPSDLP leader Claire Hanna pictured previously. Photograph: Mark Marlow\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

Stormont \u201chas to survive\u201d the fallout of the Drumcree parade, SDLP leader Claire Hanna has said.<\/p>\n

Speaking on Monday morning ahead of another meeting with Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant, Hanna said the collapse of Stormont \u201cdoes nothing\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe institutions should survive because collapsing them solves nothing, and no matter how much we\u2019re grinding each other\u2019s gears at the moment, somebody has to make decisions about the everyday.<\/p>\n

\u201cToo 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. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s difficult, but creating a vacuum and taking away the place where we have a chance to resolve these issues solves nothing,\u201d she said, speaking on RT\u00c9 Radio\u2019s Morning Ireland.<\/p>\n

Hanna said it was a \u201cvery challenging situation\u201d, though she argued that those behind the application to march on Garvaghy Road \u201cframed it as part of a culture war\u201d.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cget the dispute off the streets\u201d.<\/p>\n

DUP \u2018unclear\u2019 on future of powersharing Executive<\/p>\n

For now, the next steps of the Orange Order are unclear, writes Mark Hennessy<\/a><\/p>\n

It has made clear that it will stay \u201can hour, a day, or 10 days\u201d to vindicate its rights.<\/p>\n

However, it cannot do this under the legislation without going back to the Parades Commission to secure fresh permission to march down the road.<\/p>\n

The Parades Commission\u2019s permission last week was based significantly on a judgment by the PSNI that a march by the Orange Order on Garvaghy Road would not provoke major public order issues \u2013 a judgment regarded as \u201cmadness\u201d by Sinn F\u00e9in and sharply criticised by the SDLP.<\/p>\n

The escalating political row over the parade has tested Stormont\u2019s stability, less than nine months before Northern Ireland\u2019s voters go to the polls.<\/p>\n

\"LoyalistsLoyalists and Orange Order members outside Drumcree Church, where police formed a barricade to prevent them entering the Garvaghy Road. Photograph: Peter Morrison\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

In Belfast, Gavin Robinson, the DUP leader, was asked whether he was prepared to continue to work with Sinn F\u00e9in.<\/p>\n

If either the DUP or Sinn F\u00e9in withdrew from Northern Ireland\u2019s powersharing Executive, the devolved government would effectively collapse.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur party is maintaining the dignity of the Portadown Orangemen as they have shown determination and patience, so will we,\u201d said Robinson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundamental principle of upholding the rule of law in this society are sacrosanct and cannot be tarnished.\u201d<\/p>\n

Earlier, Sinn F\u00e9in vice-president O\u2019Neill told reporters on the Garvaghy Road that the reignition of the Drumcree dispute \u201cbrings into question how this whole peace process works\u201d.<\/p>\n

Calls for calm from Martin, Burnham<\/p>\n

British prime minister Andy Burnham has appealed for \u201ccalm on all sides\u201d over the Drumcree march dispute, saying there have been \u201cbig gains made in Northern Ireland, and we don\u2019t want to see things go backwards\u201d.<\/p>\n

Taoiseach Miche\u00e1l Martin also urged calm as he expressed concern about the situation.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cincomprehensible and wrong\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The hearing was one of three separate emergency legal challenges before the courts in Belfast across Saturday and into early Sunday.<\/p>\n

Northern Ireland Secretary to meet disputing sides<\/p>\n

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

The legal permission won<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n

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

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.<\/p>\n

On Sunday night, Bryant urged \u201ceverybody to keep calm\u201d and to co-operate with police as he pushed for a resolution and to find \u201csome kind of compromise so that people are able to go home\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

He has said he did not have the powers to call off the march unless police formally requested him to do so.<\/p>\n

\" Sinn F\u00e9in first minister Michelle O’Neill and party president Mary Lou McDonald at the Garvaghy Road in Portadown on Sunday. Photograph: Peter Morrison\/PA Wire Michelle O\u2019Neill claims \u2018victory\u2019<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill has said the Garvaghy Road community had won a \u201cvictory\u201d in the Drumcree march dispute.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis community do not want this, they do not want this march,\u201d she told reporters before leaving the area shortly after midnight on Monday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd tonight, I believe, is another victory for this community in standing steadfast for the right to live free from sectarian harassment and intimidation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The presence of O\u2019Neill and other senior Sinn F\u00e9in figures at the blockade prompted accusations of lawbreaking from unionists.<\/p>\n

Under the North\u2019s parading legislation, protests against parades must be notified and approved by the Parades Commission adjudication body.<\/p>\n

The nationalist blockade on the Garvaghy Road was an unnotified gathering. O\u2019Neill and other ministers in the Stormont Executive are bound by a pledge of office that contains a commitment to uphold the law.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can\u2019t 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,\u201d DUP leader Gavin Robinson told media in Belfast on Sunday.<\/p>\n

Protesters disperse after being told of \u2018process\u2019 to address Drumcree dispute<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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<\/a>\u2019s Stormont institutions to survive.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\"PolicePolice vans maintain the road block as the members of the Orange Order begin to disperse at Drumcree Church in Portadown on Sunday night. Photograph: Peter Morrison\/PA Wire <\/p>\n

The protest, which was illegal under parading legislation in Northern Ireland, involved senior Sinn F\u00e9in politicians, including Stormont\u2019s First Minister Michelle O\u2019Neill and party president Mary Lou McDonald.<\/p>\n

The blockade continued through the day and late into the night.<\/p>\n

At about midnight, Breand\u00e1n Mac Cionnaith from the Garvaghy Road Residents\u2019 Coalition, told protesters they had secured a \u201cvictory\u201d.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Mac Cionnaith said he had received \u201ccommitments\u201d that the parade would not be proceeding overnight.<\/p>\n

He asked for 20 to 30 volunteers to remain on the road to ensure those commitments were not broken.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve stopped them once. The process now is to ensure we stop them permanently,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Main PointsPolice are maintaining a presence near Drumcree Parish Church in Portadown this morning. This follows the dispersal…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":638322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,3659,43,2443,18254,171620,26190,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-638321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-michelle-o-neill","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-orange-order","tag-parades-commission","tag-stormont-assembly","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=638321"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/638321\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/638322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=638321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=638321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=638321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}