UK government bans Orange Order march through Catholic area of Portadown
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant has reversed a decision allowing a Protestant Orange Order parade through a Catholic district of Portadown. It keeps the ban in place for the first time in 28 years and drew sharply different reactions from republicans and unionists.
The U.K. government has reversed a decision that would have let the Orange Order, a Protestant fraternal group, parade through a Catholic district of the town of Portadown in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant announced the move late on Friday, after a standoff lasting almost two weeks. The Orangemen will not be allowed into the town's main Catholic area for the first time in 28 years. The reversal delighted Irish republicans and angered the region's British unionists.
Ban in place since 1998
Many Catholics revile the Orange Order, which has been barred from the route since 1998, after years of widespread violence linked to the annual sectarian confrontation. Bryant overturned the original ruling by the Parades Commission, Northern Ireland's independent body that handles disputes over Orange Order marches. He called for all protests, rallies and demonstrations to stand down, saying there was no excuse for further escalation of tensions.
Street fighting over such marches helped spark Northern Ireland's three-decade conflict, known as "The Troubles," in which nearly 3,700 people died before the 1998 peace accord.
Reactions
Hundreds of Catholic residents on Garvaghy Road in Portadown, backed by Sinn Féin, gathered to cheer the decision. Sinn Féin is the Irish republican party leading Northern Ireland's fraying power-sharing government. First Minister Michelle O'Neill, who has been accused of breaking the law by helping residents block the Orangemen's intended route since Sept. 27, appeared on Ireland's Late Late Show to express relief. She said residents had spent 13 days living in fear that the unwanted march would be forced down their road.
The Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), the main pro-British party in the coalition, condemned the decision as a capitulation to mob rule. Some DUP lawmakers called for the dismissal of Northern Ireland's police chief, who had recommended the reversal. DUP leader Gavin Robinson said the government had sent a dangerous message that Northern Ireland should be run on force of numbers and on who shouts loudest. In his view, the system for managing parade disputes, in place for nearly three decades, now lies in tatters and the rule of law has been fundamentally undermined.
