Northern Ireland Protestant parade banned by UK minister

UK Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant banned a contentious Protestant parade through a mostly Irish nationalist and Catholic district in Portadown on Friday, after police warned that trying to complete it would risk serious injury and disorder.

The Parades Commission had authorised 35 Orangemen to march silently along Garvaghy Road on September 27, without bands or supporters. Thousands of people blocked the procession, halting the first parade allowed along the route in almost three decades.

Orangemen have remained at nearby Drumcree Church, demanding to complete the march, while residents have maintained their protest.

Bryant called for “all protests, rallies and demonstrations to be stood down” and said there was no excuse for tensions to keep rising. He said the circumstances under which the procession had been approved had “changed considerably” and that it could not go ahead as determined.

Police Service of Northern Ireland Chief Constable Jon Boutcher welcomed the decision. He said he had written to Bryant on Friday asking him to review the Parades Commission decision, and said all available, lawful and proportionate options to allow the procession to be completed had been exhausted.

Boutcher said any operation to let the march go ahead would have carried an “unacceptable” risk of serious injury and disorder and could have had “catastrophic” long-term consequences for trust in the peace process.

Sinn Fein president Mary Lou McDonald and vice president Michelle O’Neill said there would be “an enormous sense of relief” in the community and praised Garvaghy Road residents. Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, said the rule of law in Northern Ireland had been “fatally undermined”.

The procession last went along Garvaghy Road in 1997 and was barred the following year, soon after a peace accord largely ended three decades of conflict over British rule in Northern Ireland. A dispute over the same parade triggered deadly unrest in the 1990s.