Tensions run high in Northern Ireland as police block controversial Orange Order parade 

Hind Al Soulia - Riyadh - BELFAST — Tensions remained high in Northern Ireland on Monday after police prevented an early morning attempt by the Orange Order to make a controversial parade down a road that had previously been blocked by protesters.

The stand-off followed a day of protests in which thousands gathered to block the road, while police kept the two sides apart.

The dispute centres on the Drumcree parade, an annual march by the Orange Order, a Protestant organisation closely associated with British unionism.

A group of men tried to march from Drumcree Church down the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown in the early hours of Monday but a line of police Land Rovers stood in the way.

They had been unable to make the permitted parade on Sunday morning because protesters had gathered on the Garvaghy Road. The stand-off continued throughout Sunday, with the Orangemen waiting at the church, around a mile from the road, for the go-ahead from police.

Sinn Féin First Minister Michelle O'Neill joined the protest, prompting Democratic Unionist Party leader Gavin Robinson to accuse her of acting unlawfully.

The Drumcree parade, which in the 1990s sparked some of the most serious disorder in Northern Ireland's history, was due to go ahead for the first time in 30 years after a series of legal challenges.

Since 1998, the Orange Order had been banned from completing its Drumcree march, and until this year had been repeatedly refused permission to finish the route by the Parades Commission, which was set up to adjudicate disputes.

The Orange Order is a Protestant pro-British organization, while the area where it wants to walk, specifically along the Garvaghy Road, is largely Catholic and predominantly inhabited by pro-Irish nationalists.

Protesters started gathering on the Garvaghy Road in the early hours of Sunday and remained there until about midnight.

For most of Sunday, police maintained a sterile zone between the two sides, while officers repeatedly called on protesters to disperse.

Orangemen set off down the Drumcree Road a few times throughout the day before stopping and turning back.

On Sunday evening, a large group of people joined the Orange Order, and police blocked the road with vehicles.

The protesters on the Garvaghy Road were joined by members of the Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP) and Sinn Féin throughout the day.

First Minister Michelle O'Neill said the community had won a "victory".

"This community do not want this, they do not want this march," she said shortly after midnight.

Democrat Unionist Party (DUP) leader Gavin Robinson accused O'Neill and other Sinn Féin politicians at the protest of being "lawmakers acting as lawbreakers".

After meeting Sir Chris at Hillsborough Castle, Robinson said the stakes for Stormont were high and "could get higher" if the Orange Order was unable to complete the parade, and there needed to be consequences for politicians he accused of breaking the law.

Alliance leader and Justice Minister Naomi Long said it was a very difficult situation for everyone involved and it was not helpful for people to be "issuing ultimatums" and "ratcheting up the tensions around it".

Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Jon Burrows said the protest might be non-violent but it was "still illegal".

Catholic Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin and Church of Ireland Archbishop of Armagh John McDowell called for an "urgent" and inclusive initiative to resolve the crisis, stating: "Too much is at stake."

The Orange Order, the most prominent of the loyal orders associated with Protestants in Northern Ireland, holds thousands of parades every year and the vast majority pass off without incident.

However, many Catholics see the marches as sectarian and object to them passing through, or close to, Catholic or nationalist areas.

The Garvaghy Road had been part of the Drumcree route, but by the mid 1990s nationalist residents protested against the parade. The row sparked some of the most serious public disorder in Northern Ireland's history and was linked to several murders.

The row reemerged after a court case in which a ruling by the Parades Commission, the organisation formed during the Drumcree dispute to decide on contentious marches during Northern Ireland's parading season, was overturned.

On Friday, following 28 years of unsuccessful applications, the commission decided the march could go ahead with restrictions in place.

The Drumcree dispute was one of Northern Ireland's most serious parading disputes during the 1990s, when stand-offs 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.

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

In 1998, the newly-established Parades Commission ruled that the Orange Order should not march down the road, a decision upheld until Friday.