NI secretary to ban the Drumcree parade

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant has said he will ban the contentious Orange Order parade at Drumcree.

The dispute has led to a stand-off between Orangemen and nationalist residents of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown lasting almost two weeks.

Sir Chris said the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) chief constable advised him "that it would not be possible to enable the procession to happen without a major intervention which would carry an unacceptable risk of serious injury, disorder and a wider contagion effect across Northern Ireland".

The move comes on the 13th day of deadlock between residents and the local district lodge of the Orange Order.

The Parades Commission had ruled that the march, on Sunday 27 September, could go ahead with restrictions in place.

But the parade, from Drumcree Church into Portadown, did not happen due to a large protest on the Garvaghy Road.

Under legislation, a secretary of state can overturn a Parades Commission determination, especially following some form of input from the police.

Sir Chris had been coming under increasing pressure from Sinn Féin and the SDLP to stop the parade.

On Friday night, Sir Chris said: "The Parades Commission have advised me that while ultimately a matter for the courts to determine, the commission is of the view that, in light of this current assessment by the chief constable, the original determination does not now have enduring legal effect.

"Consequently, and in the interests of wider public interest and safety, I've come to the conclusion that the circumstances under which that decision was made have now changed considerably.

"As a result, the procession cannot go ahead as it was determined."

Chief Constable Jon Boutcher had asked the secretary of state to review the Parades Commission determination allowing the Drumcree parade.

That development came as First Minister Michelle O'Neill confirmed she had received a letter from police investigating protests over the Drumcree parading dispute.

On Thursday, the police said they had begun issuing letters inviting people "reasonably suspected" of committing offences linked to the protests to interview.

Speaking outside a community centre on the Garvaghy Road on Friday night, Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition spokesman Breandán Mac Cionnaith said that "while this is a win for us tonight, it is one that is still tinged with sadness and with loss".

"There's no real cause for celebration that we have to remember the price that was paid to get this decision over many years."

He said the announcement should mark a "starting point" to rebuilding strained community relations in Portadown.

Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald said the overwhelming sense on the road was "one of relief and one of joy", adding that this "awful threat and this sense of menace has been lifted from the community".

"To have had the prospect of a march down the road was just incomprehensible, nobody could believe that this decision had been landed and the community said from the get go that they would stand strong and united and that they would not have it and they have. Right has won out here."

Taoiseach (Irish prime minister) Micheál Martin said in a post on social media that the announcement by Sir Chris "will come as a significant relief to the community on the Garvaghy Road".

"It will also be a relief to people in communities right across Northern Ireland, and the island of Ireland as a whole, who were concerned that the situation at Drumcree, if left unresolved, could have had lasting negative repercussions on community relations and reconciliation," he said.

The Portadown District said it "notes the chief constable has abdicated his responsibility for policing Northern Ireland".

"We further note that the secretary of state has bowed to the republican mob, and rewarded criminality. Again, the consequences should be self-evident," they said.

The Portadown District said that they "understand the immense anger which is tonight engulfing our community", but has urged for calm.

"The Portadown District will be having no further engagement with the PSNI."

Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson said in a statement that "it has been clear in recent days that due to the actions of Sinn Féin and the total disregard for the recent determination in favour of a parade that the PSNI cannot ensure the safe completion of the parade".

"The decision of the chief constable to refer the matter to the secretary of state and his conclusion that the parade cannot proceed is a direct result of republican agitation, mobilisation and the looming threats of potential violence."

"These decisions are a mistake, and send profound signals that the country should be run on force of numbers and who shouts the loudest."

There has been stalemate in Portadown since the decision to allow an Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road on 27 September.

That morning, up to 1,000 people - including politicians such as Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill - blocked the road, preventing Orangemen marching from Drumcree Church a mile to the west.

Since then, residents have maintained a constant presence around the road while Orangemen have also repeatedly tried to march the route before being turned back by police.

The chief constable said last week that the consequences of police forcing an Orange Order march down the Garvaghy Road "could be catastrophic".

He had said while the PSNI's objective was to facilitate the determination, this could not be done "at all costs".

As of last Thursday, the policing operation over the dispute had cost about £3m.

Two weeks ago exactly, the Parades Commission issued a determination saying that the Orange Order parade was to be allowed on the Garvaghy Road with restrictions in place.

That prompted a legal challenge from the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition which opposed the march.

The Court of Appeal is considering whether to allow a challenge to the Parades Commission's ruling, which has been lodged by residents.

Drumcree was one of Northern Ireland's most serious parading disputes, when stand-offs in the mid-to-late 1990s over attempts by the Orange Order to march along the Garvaghy Road were accompanied by riots, roadblocks and killings.

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

• What is the Garvaghy Road dispute all about?

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

Earlier this year the Parades Commission decided that the march could go ahead with restrictions in place after its original decision to stop the march was overturned in court.