From POLITICO · · 1m 10s
UK bans Orange Order march through Catholic area
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant reversed a decision to allow a Protestant parade through a Catholic district in Portadown, ending a standoff that divided the region.
In brief
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant reversed a decision to allow a Protestant parade through a Catholic district in Portadown, ending a standoff that divided the region. UK Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant banned the Orange Order from marching through a Catholic area in Portadown for the first time in…
Bryant reverses parade decision
Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant announced late Friday that the Orange Order would not be allowed to parade through Portadown's main Catholic district for the first time in twenty eight years.
Catholics celebrate the ban
Hundreds of Catholic locals backed by Sinn Féin gathered along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown to cheer the reversal. First Minister Michelle O'Neill said residents had been living with constant fear for thirteen days.
“For the last thirteen days they've been living with this constant fear and a cloud hanging over them that this unwanted sectarian march was going to be forced down that road.”
Unionists denounce capitulation
The Democratic Unionist Party condemned Bryant's move as capitulation to mob rule. Leader Gavin Robinson said the rule of law had been fundamentally undermined and the parades management system now lies in tatters.
“Northern Ireland should be run on force of numbers and who shouts the loudest.”
Decades of sectarian conflict
The Orange Order had been barred from the route since nineteen ninety eight following years of widespread violence.
The big picture
UK Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant banned the Orange Order from marching through a Catholic area in Portadown for the first time in twenty eight years, reversing an earlier decision and sparking fury among British unionists.
