Protesters blocking Garvaghy Road ahead of Orange Order march

Hundreds of protesters are blocking a road in Portadown after a contentious Orange Order parade was given late-night clearance to march down it for the first time in almost 30 years.

Following a series of legal challenges, a ruling by the Parades Commission permitting the Drumcree parade down the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road was upheld in an "unprecedented" sitting of the High Court in Belfast.

Northern Ireland's First Minister Michelle O'Neill has joined protesters, while members of the Orange Order and Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) politicians have gathered about a mile away, waiting for the road to clear.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said O'Neill was breaking the law by protesting.

He said the first minister had "broken her pledge of office".

"It is shameful that we see on the streets of Portadown, a first minister, a collection of ministers and series of elected representatives who are participating in an unlawful protest, who are blocking the road and who are giving two fingers to the police, the courts and the rule of law," he added.

Protesters started gathering on the Garvaghy Road in the early hours of Sunday, after the final court decision. They have been linking arms and singing, with the earlier rain giving way to clearer skies.

Police are monitoring the situation and dozens of armoured vehicles have arrived in the town. They have called on protesters to clear the route.

The march was meant to begin no later than 08:00 BST, but police have told the Orange Order that the road is not clear.

Members of the Portadown District Lodge are waiting in a hall at Drumcree Parish Church. They intend to walk from there down the Garvaghy Road to Carleton Street Orange Hall in the town, where supporters are waiting for them to arrive.

In the 1990s, the Drumcree parade sparked some of the most serious disorder in Northern Ireland's history.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham has appealed for "calm on all sides", saying there have been "big gains made in Northern Ireland, and we don't want to see things go backwards".

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin also appealed for calm, but he said he found the original decision by the Parades Commission "incomprehensible and wrong".

O'Neill has also questioned the decision making of the Parades Commission and called on the Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant to intervene in the parade dispute.

Asked if she thought Stormont could collapse over Drumcree, she said: "The progress of the last 28 years have been brought into question by the actions of the Orange Order and those within political unionism that want to drag us backwards.

"What's the point? What's the point whenever people are going to railroad over their rights?"

DUP MP Carla Lockhart said the first minister was "whipping up hysteria" at an unlawful protest.

She called O'Neill's comments "outrageous" and the protesters a "rabble".

"The law is on our side," she said. "They're afraid of 35 men, walking down a road silently."

Claire Hanna, from the nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP), called for "political leadership" and said it was "necessary to de-escalate".

The SDLP leader, who was at the protest, has called on the chief constable and Northern Ireland secretary to "use every power available" to intervene, and said she had reminded both that they had the "ability to revoke any permission for this parade".

"Whatever the legalities, it was never politically right or morally right to do this," Hanna added.

Speaking to the media at Waterfront Hall, where she attended a National Police Memorial Day event, the Justice Minister Naomi Long said there was a "predictability about all of this" adding that this was an "entirely avoidable conflict".

The Alliance Party leader urged the dispute to be "pulled back from the brink".

Long said there was "there was no need to drag us back towards the past" and, irrespective of the decision made, she said public representatives must "respect the rule of law", adding that it was up to the PSNI chief constable to decide if the law has been broken.

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant said Sunday was a "difficult" day for police in Northern Ireland.

He said it was not his job "to decide whether somebody has or hasn't broken the law".

"Those of us who are in elected office have a particular onus on us to try and calm and bring temperate language to everything," he told reporters at the Waterfront event.

Sir Chris said he wants to "sit down with everybody" and give them the same message, suggesting rhetoric needed to be brought down "20, 30, maybe even 40 per cent less".

Earlier on Sunday, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said: "The policing operation thus far has helped ensure there has been no violence or disorder.

"We have an evidence-gathering operation in place to detect any offences and will continue to do this throughout today."

He asked those "with influence" to encourage people to comply with the law.

On Friday, the Parades Commission said the march could go ahead along Garvaghy Road.

Rather than start at 13:00 on Sunday as intended, the commission said it could begin no later than 08:00 and with 35 participants rather than the 60 the Orange Order requested.

But an initial legal challenge from the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition (GRRC) at the High Court saw a judge issue an injunction banning the parade, with Judge Patricia Smyth saying the "long-running dispute has the potential to escalate within Northern Ireland".

This was later successfully challenged by an Orange Order member at the Court of Appeal.

Late on Saturday evening, the GRRC was given permission to challenge that decision at the High Court - an appeal which was dismissed by Justice Humphreys.

In a hearing concluding at 02:15 BST on Sunday morning, Justice Humphreys acknowledged the "unusual if not unprecedented circumstances... with a parade due to begin in just over six hours' time".

Delivering his judgement, he said: "This court cannot substitute its own view or anyone else's view for that of the commission."

Northern Ireland's most senior judge, Lady Chief Justice Siobhan Keegan, similarly described the situation as "unprecedented".

The Drumcree parade dispute began in the mid-1990s and it almost derailed the peace process at the time.

Violence related to the dispute resulted in riots, roadblocks and murders.

When the Orange Order was prevented by police from walking down the route in July 1995 there was a tense stand-off. It was the same for the next three years.

The Orange Order is the most prominent of the loyal orders associated with Protestants in Northern Ireland.

The Parades Commission began operating in 1998 to regulate parades and try to defuse tension around marches.

Its decision not to allow a march down the Garvaghy Road that summer has been challenged by the order - unsuccessfully - over the past three decades.

Last month, the commission's decision was quashed following a legal challenge by a member of the Orange Order.