Stormont teeters on the brink as unionists slam Sinn Fein over Drumcree road block - and defying rule of law
The future of Northern Ireland’s government appears to be in the balance after the First Minister and other senior Sinn Fein figures took part in a road block on the Garvaghy Road – with the DUP accusing Michelle O’Neill of having broken her pledge of office and the law.
Gavin Robinson said it was her role to “uphold lawful decisions, not inflame opposition to them” – after the Sinn Fein leader said the Parades Commission ruling “brings into question how this whole peace process works”.
The DUP boss said Sinn Fein politicians were giving “two fingers to the police, the courts and the rule of law” – and that “we are being plunged into difficult territory”. He stopped short of saying his party could no longer work with Sinn Fein in government, when asked.
UUP leader Jon Burrows said the PSNI must investigate what happened “and follow the evidence wherever it leads, including to those in the most senior positions”.
TUV boss Jim Allister said the First Minister’s “flagrant breach of her Pledge of Office to support the rule of law” means the DUP must remove her by resigning from the joint executive office.
Residents of the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road – alongside many republican politicians from across Northern Ireland and beyond – blocked the throughfare early on Sunday morning. It followed fury from Sinn Fein and SDLP politicians over the determination and subsequent court rulings which had allowed the scaled-back parade to proceed for the first time in 28 years.
Since the decision was announced on Friday, republicans, led by senior Sinn Fein figures including Ms O’Neill and Mary Lou McDonald, addressed crowds outside the courts in Belfast. After a final go-ahead was given in the court of appeal in the early hours of Sunday morning, the protest shifted from the streets of Belfast to Portadown.
Among them was the First Minister. Some in the crowd blocking the road could be heard shouting “bring Stormont down”. Asked if she thought Stormont could collapse over the Drumcree dispute, the First Minister said: “I think that this brings into question how this whole peace process works.
“The progress of the last 28 years have been brought into question by the actions of the Orange Order and those within political unionism that want to drag us backwards, and I think that brings into question – you heard it here today.
“You heard it about the people’s view of Stormont. You heard it about the terms of politics working for them, and you hear it here time and time again and we’ve certainly heard it over the last 24 hours.
“What’s the point? What’s the point whenever people are going to railroad over their rights? Whenever they’re going to try to roll back in 28 years of progress? But I can tell you what we’re about. We’re about the future. We’re about building on our peace and progress. We’re about not allowing people to bring us back.”
The Stormont institutions have no authority over the Parades Commission, which is an independent quango set up in 1998 to regulate parading disputes.
Gavin Robinson said: “The legal position is now unequivocal. 35 Orangemen can walk in silence along Garvaghy Road”. He added: “Yet Michelle O’Neill described that outcome as ‘disgraceful’, claimed an Orange procession was being ‘forced’ through the area and declared, ‘There is no going back. Not tomorrow. Not ever’.
“A First Minister’s duty is to uphold lawful decisions, not inflame opposition to them. The rule of law cannot apply only when Sinn Fein likes the outcome. Our institutions are founded on respect for the police, the courts and the rule of law”,the DUP boss said.