Sinn Féin leaders 'had an alternative to breaking the law - there is no circumstance in which it is right'
Sinn Féin leaders Mary Lou McDonald and Michelle O’Neill have attended police interviews over their actions on the Garvaghy Road, with the former saying that standing in opposition to an Orange parade had been both the “right thing to do” and “the only thing to do”.
Two DUP MLAs have reacted by saying there had been an alternative to breaking the law.
Ms McDonald and Ms O’Neill were among several Sinn Féin politicians to receive letters in the last week or so from the PSNI asking them to attend Musgrave Street station for interview.
Politicians from other parties also received letters.
Police are carrying out an investigation into the unnotified protest which blocked the Garvaghy Road on September 27, the day that 35 Orangemen were due to march in silence down the road at 8am.
Invitations to attend interviews had been sent to individuals “reasonably suspected of committing offences”.
PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher has previously made it clear there would be “consequences” for those found to have broken the law.
Speaking to reporters on her way into the police station today, Ms McDonald said: “We stood on the Garvaghy Road to support that community at a time of great pressure and vulnerability, at a time where the peace and peace of mind of that community was under real threat, at a time where their right to live free from sectarian harassment was directly under threat.
“We stood with them shoulder to shoulder because that was the right thing to do.
"In fact, it was the only thing to do.
“It was what was demanded of us as leaders, and what was demanded of us to stand firmly on the side of progress and to defend almost 30 years of peace.
“We said then, and we have said since then, that there is no going back.
“We will only move forward. We are not going back to the dark days of the past.
“We said also that we would co-operate with any processes arising from that decision that we took, and so we are here today to have an interview and to co-operate fully with the PSNI.”
Ms O’Neill made clear she would not be resigning as Stormont First Minister if she was prosecuted.
“It was always the right thing to do to stand on the Garvaghy Road,” she told reporters outside the PSNI’s Musgrave Street station.
“We made a choice to stand with those residents who were very much threatened with the fact that all the 28 years of peace and progress for that all to be unravelled and undermined.
“This is a community that deserved our leadership, a community that deserved our attention, and it’s a decision that we are very proud of.
“We also said that we would engage with whatever processes come our way.
“That’s what today is about. So let’s go in and let’s do the interview, and we will participate as we said we would.
“But I am going nowhere. I am going to keep turning up for people.
"I am the First Minister and that is my job.”
Responding, DUP MLA for North Belfast Phillip Brett (who is a member of the Orange Order) told the News Letter: “There was an alternative for Mary Lou and Michelle to defying the ruling of the court and of the Parades Commission because they disagreed with the decision to grant the parade.
"They could have stood peacefully on the side of the road and had their objections shown and noted.
"But instead what they decided to do was break the law.
"There is no circumstance in which that is the right thing to do.”
Trevor Clarke, DUP MLA for South Antrim, said: “The ‘only thing to do’ was to abide by the law.
"Of course, Sinn Féin are no strangers to breaking the law.
"We’ve seen a history of that over the past 30 years in terms of their actions and their connections.
"The police now need to obviously go through the process and be as rigorous as possible and look at every opportunity they have to get prosecutions in these cases because clearly you can’t have political leaders deciding they’re immune from law.”
He called on police to “set an example” that “these actions cannot be ignored”.
Earlier, an Assembly committee at Stormont ended in acrimonious scenes after Ms O’Neill walked out amid heated exchanges
She indicated she was leaving the Executive Office committee hearing at Stormont as she had to attend the police station for interview.
DUP deputy First Minister Emma Little-Pengelly, who had appeared alongside Ms O’Neill to face questions, offered to stay on, but she was advised that would not be in line with protocol.