A court in Northern Ireland has permitted the Protestant Orange Order to march through a mainly Catholic area of Portadown for the first time in 28 years, reviving one of the region's most contentious marching disputes.
Northern Ireland's Court of Appeal overturned a temporary injunction that had been granted on Saturday, rejecting a final attempt by residents to block the parade from passing through Garvaghy Road. The Parades Commission, the independent body that rules on disputed marches in Northern Ireland, approved the procession with a 35-person limit, barred bands and accompanying supporters, and required the march to finish by 9:30am local time.
The legal dispute was resolved in the early hours of Sunday. Hundreds of protesters subsequently blocked the route into the area in response to the ruling.
Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Fein and the party's leader, Mary Lou McDonald, were among those who gathered on Garvaghy Road overnight. Both urged the British government and police to intervene and halt the parade. O'Neill said she had spoken to Britain's minister for the region as well as the Irish government.
"This is madness," McDonald told reporters shortly after 8am. "This, in fact, is primitive treatment of any community in the year 2026. It is intolerable, and it will not be tolerated."
"This is a dignified and united community, and they are absolutely determined that they and we will not be drawn back into the past," she added.
Deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, from the Democratic Unionist Party, which supports Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom, said threats of violence were unacceptable. "No one in Northern Ireland wants violence or disorder," she said.
Police worked to keep marchers and protesters apart. Police vans parked nearby had earlier broadcast a warning that anyone taking part in the protest was committing a criminal offence.
A small group of Orange Order members wearing traditional silk orange sashes and black bowler hats gathered at another part of the town, according to images shared on social media by a DUP lawmaker.
The Orange Order is a Protestant organisation closely associated with unionism, the political tradition that favours Northern Ireland remaining part of the United Kingdom.
The dispute over the Drumcree parade and Garvaghy Road is one of the most bitter marching confrontations of the Troubles, the decades-long conflict over Northern Ireland's political status that largely ended with the 1998 Good Friday Agreement. Repeated attempts by the Orange Order to march along Garvaghy Road triggered protests, violence and major security operations throughout the 1990s, with tensions over the route leading to riots, roadblocks and murders that threatened the peace process.
