United Kingdom

UK: Police Block Orange Order March on Garvaghy Road

Is banning the Garvaghy Road parade respecting a community's right to peace or letting intimidation override lawful rights?

SEP 27·Updated SEP 28

UK: Police Block Orange Order March on Garvaghy Road

Story

Above: Nationalists block the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Northern Ireland, on Sept. 27. Image credit: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images

The Facts

Police blocked the Orange Order from marching down Garvaghy Road in the early hours of Monday, forming a line of Land Rovers across the route in Portadown after protesters prevented the parade from proceeding the previous day.
Daily Mail
BBC News
Thousands of protesters, some wearing balaclavas, gathered in the rain on Garvaghy Road, a mainly Catholic area of the largely Protestant town, on Sunday, linking arms and singing as police warned over a loudspeaker that taking part in an unnotified parade was a criminal offense.
GB News
Reuters
Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald and First Minister Michelle O'Neill joined the protest. The route, a Troubles flashpoint where standoffs sparked riots and deadly unrest in the late 1990s, has been banned since 1998.
Irish Examiner
CNN
Michelle O'Neill on X
The march was cleared at a High Court hearing that ended at 2:15 a.m. local time Sunday before Justice Michael Humphreys, who noted the "unusual if not unprecedented circumstances" and said the Parades Commission had reached a reasoned decision.
Irish Examiner
TheJournal.ie
The Telegraph
Judge Patricia Smyth temporarily suspended the parade on Saturday after a five-hour hearing, but the Court of Appeal overturned that injunction at 11:30 p.m. Lady Chief Justice Siobhan Keegan said the judge had "erred in law."
Daily Mail
The Irish Times
The Parades Commission reversed its long-running determination Friday, permitting 35 participants, including five marshals, to leave Drumcree Church by 8 a.m. and disperse from Carleton Street Orange Hall by 9:30 a.m. without bands.
The Irish News
Reuters

Sources Split

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RIGHT

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The Spin

Narrative A

Forcing a parade through a neighborhood that has never wanted it is provocation. Residents of Garvaghy Road carry real memories of fear and violence, and their right to live in peace outweighs anyone's desire for "tradition" or a triumphant spectacle. Respecting a community's clearly stated wishes is the bare minimum for anything calling itself a shared society.

Claire Hanna on X

The SDLP on X

Upper Bann Sinn Féin on X

Narrative B

A public road belongs to everyone, and a lawful parade should never be canceled because a mob threatens violence. Letting intimidation override a legally binding ruling rewards sectarianism and teaches that rights only exist where they are popular. Nearly three decades on from the Good Friday Agreement, tolerance that stops at one tradition is no tolerance at all.

David Vance on X

Nathan Brownlee on X