Protesters block controversial Orange parade in Portadown despite permission

Neither rain nor the early hours of the morning could deter protesters from blocking Garvaghy Street. Thousands gathered in the predominantly Catholic part of the Northern Irish city of Portadown, including Northern Ireland's Prime Minister Michelle O'Neill.

“Our point is to build on peace and our progress and not allow anyone to set us back,” O’Neill said. Your eyes are focused on the future. "But I'll tell you what has absolutely no place in our community: a march enforced against the will of this community. That will not be tolerated anywhere."

Shortly beforehand, judges had decided that the controversial parade of the Protestant Orange Order could take place along Garvaghy Street. Residents took legal action against it in vain.

Street was the scene of serious clashes

In the late 1990s the street was the scene of serious clashes between Catholic, pro-Irish Republicans and Protestant, pro-British Unionists. The so-called Drumcree parade became one of the most famous conflicts of the Northern Irish Troubles.

For this reason, the Orange Order has not been allowed to march along the traditional route since 1998. But this year the responsible parade commission granted the Protestant organization permission for the first time.

Unionists accuse the head of government of scaremongering

Unionists, such as DUP MP Jonathan Buckley, accused the Irish Republican Party Sinn Féin - and thus also Sinn Féin Prime Minister Michelle O'Neill - of deliberately fomenting panic. "The Orange Order will abide by the law. Now it is up to others in high political office to demonstrate their competence in law and order," says Buckley.

DUP members and MPs also traveled to Portadown. British Northern Ireland Minister Chris Bryant, responsible for relations between London and Northern Ireland, appealed to politicians on both sides to remain calm:

Requests from the police didn't help

The demonstrators, meanwhile, didn't even think about clearing Garvaghy Road. Even requests from the police didn't help.

Says Mark Devenport, a former BBC reporter who has long covered the peace process in Northern Ireland: "The police are absolutely unwilling to copy the old tactics of forcibly driving residents and their supporters off the streets, as was the case in the mid-1990s. Instead, they have tried to negotiate."

Prime Minister Burnham appeals to all parties

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham and Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin also appealed to all parties not to let the situation in Portadown escalate further. Martin called the Parade Commission's original decision to give the Orange Order the green light for the routers again after 28 years "incomprehensible and wrong."