Orange Order march dispute threatens peace in Northern Ireland

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PORTADOWN, Northern Ireland — Hard-liners in Northern Ireland are reviving an age-old dispute rife with bitter symbolism that pits the rights of British Protestants against those of Irish Catholics — and risks the destruction of their supposed unity government.

Hundreds of residents of the Garvaghy Road, the main Catholic district in the otherwise staunchly Protestant town of Portadown, near Belfast, stood in the roadway in pouring rain overnight to block a Sunday morning parade by Northern Ireland’s main Protestant brotherhood, the Orange Order — a parade that had been banned since 1998 because of the widespread violence it triggered.

The Parades Commission, the British government-appointed group that for decades has adjudicated such zero-sum disputes, stunned Garvaghy Road residents by ruling Friday that a drastically pared-down Orange parade should be allowed to pass through the area Sunday morning. It had refused more than 1,300 previous requests from the group seeking to “finish” the parade it was blocked from completing in 1998.

A series of unprecedented late-night legal challenges followed Saturday, capped by a ruling from Northern Ireland’s senior judge after midnight stating that the courts had no power to overturn the commission’s independent judgment.

The scene is now set for a revival of a standoff with no obvious end point — and no apparent way to deliver a “win” for both sides.

The Police Service of Northern Ireland deployed several hundred officers to the site. Many of them sat Sunday morning in scores of armored Land Rovers parked on the narrow country lane that separates the would-be Orange marchers on a hilltop church from the Garvaghy Road demonstrators, out of sight beyond houses and hedgerows.

The two main parties in Northern Ireland’s cross-community government — revived only two years ago following a lengthy breakdown over Northern Ireland’s peculiar Brexit rules — are lining up on opposite sides of this renewed street battle of wills, raising the political stakes.

Sinn Féin, the Irish republican party that represents most Catholics and has grown to become the largest party in Northern Ireland, rallied in force alongside the Garvaghy Road protesters.

The Sinn Féin first minister of Northern Ireland’s government, Michelle O’Neill, won cheers as she told the partisan crowd: “The Garvaghy Road residents deserve to live free from sectarian harassment and intimidation.”

“Does anybody think this is a good idea? No right-minded person would make this decision,” said O’Neill, who expressed bewilderment over the Parades Commission’s U-turn. “Why, after 28 years of determinations to block a march down this road, did the Parades Commission think this is the right idea today to bring this mess back on to this community?”

But Northern Ireland’s main pro-British party, the Democratic Unionists, stood alongside the blocked Orangemen as they waited in hope that the police would enforce the commission’s ruling by pushing the Catholics out of the road. The last time this happened, in 1997, it triggered three nights of Irish republican rioting across Northern Ireland.

“It’s a big day for Portadown. Obviously we have had a seismic win within the courts. The law is on our side,” declared the Democratic Unionist MP representing Portadown, Carla Lockhart.

She singled out O’Neill for criticism, branding the first minister as a law-breaker leading a mob.

“What does it say when you have an absolute rabble, thousands chanting, and our self-proclaimed ‘first minister for all’ leading the chants and standing unlawfully?” Lockhart said.

“But these men will continue to stand here,” she said, gesturing to a few dozen Orangemen standing outside the Anglican church, many of them under umbrellas. “They’ve the law on their side. We’ll ensure that the parade is put lawfully down the road.”

Sinn Féin and other Irish nationalist politicians appealed to the British government to intervene.

But U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham said he would reverse the commission’s parade ruling only if Northern Ireland’s police commander, Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, recommended another policy U-turn on security grounds. Such a decision would risk the growth of a Protestant counter-protest at the confrontation zone, as happened repeatedly in the 1990s, spurring widespread rioting and isolated killings across Northern Ireland.

“There have been big gains made in Northern Ireland and we don’t want to see things go backwards,” Burnham told the BBC. “Obviously (it’s) a challenging situation today. But it’s very important that we work to bring calm.”

Burnham’s secretary of state for Northern Ireland, Chris Bryant, said what happens next depends on the judgment of the police chief, not his own. Underscoring the risk of a rapidly deteriorating security situation, he left the Labour Party’s annual conference in Liverpool to fly back to Belfast.

“This is primarily a policing matter now,” Bryant told Sky News.

He noted that the demonstrators blocking the Garvaghy Road did not have approval from the Parades Commission. “The law states that if you want to mount a protest against a parade, you have to lodge an application with the Parades Commission,” he said. “It means the protest that is going on at the moment is unlawful.”

The Orange Order was founded near Portadown in 1795 to oppose the Catholic community and to celebrate their own side’s 1690 military triumph under the command of King William of Orange. The group mounts thousands of parades annually , concentrated on July 12, the anniversary of that 17th century victory. The Catholic side broadly loathes the parades as demonstrations of Protestant power, and since the 1990s has tried to block any Orange parades that pass near or through their communities.

Boutcher, the police commander, issued a carefully worded statement that underscored his desire to avoid physically confronting the Garvaghy Road protesters if possible. Instead, he said officers would collect video and photos to identify those breaking the law — potentially including, though he didn’t specify this, the Sinn Féin leaders — for eventual prosecution.

“The policing operation thus far has helped ensure there has been no violence or disorder,” Boutcher said. “We have an evidence gathering operation in place to detect any offenses and will continue to do this throughout today. I appeal to everyone to remain calm and peaceful.”

Bracing for potential militant reactions elsewhere to the Portadown standoff, the Northern Irish police this weekend received more than 100 reinforcement officers from Police Scotland .