Michelle O’Neill’s stance on Drumcree slammed

Unionist parties have hit out at Michelle O’Neill after the Sinn Fein politician said that an Orange parade on the Garvaghy Road would not be tolerated – and accused them of “harking for the days of the past”.

The Drumcree parading dispute is back at the heart of Ulster politics for the first time in decades after a damning court case which exposed serious issues with the Parades Commission’s decision making process over an application for a march this year.

placeholder image — First Minister Michelle O'Neill has said residents from the mainly-nationalist Garvaghy Road in Portadown are "anxious" at what she called "triumphalism" by unionist leaders following a court ruling over one of Northern Ireland's most contentious parades.

DUP leader Gavin Robinson says the first minister’s comments reveal a disturbing a lack of interest in how a public body was found to operate.

“It will be lost on no-one in Northern Ireland how the ‘First Minister for All’ appears to take no issue with a public body that has been found to act unlawfully. “It’s not triumphalist to expect that applications made to the Parades Commission should be considered properly, in line with legislation and without the inherent disrespect that was revealed during the recent application”.

TUV leader Jim Allister said it “ill-becomes Michelle O’Neill to accuse Unionists of harking back to the past just a few weeks after she lionised the murderer of young Yvonne Dunlop”.

They were reacting to comments by Ms O’Neill at Drumcree yesterday, where she said the “days of pushing any parades or any sort of negative experience again on any community here will not be acceptable or tolerated by anybody”.