The Protestant ceremony supporters of Britain, the Orange Order, are set to pass through a predominantly Catholic and nationalist area in Northern Ireland on Sunday. This is the first time this ceremony has been allowed to pass through this area since 1997.
Court Decision and Reactions
A court ruling last night allowed the ceremony to proceed after several last-minute legal challenges that reached the Supreme Court in Belfast. Thirty-five members of the Orange Order are expected to quietly pass through Garvaghy Road in Portadown, and no musical groups or other supporters will participate in the ceremony.
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About 2000 people gathered on Sunday morning on the street to protest and prevent the ceremony from taking place. British Prime Minister Andy Burnham called for calm on all sides and stated that "great achievements" have been made in Northern Ireland, and they do not want to see a return to the past.
Political Reactions and Area History
Michelle O'Neill, the First Minister of Northern Ireland and a member of the republican party Sinn Féin, protested the decision to allow the ceremony, saying: "Our message tonight is clear. There is no going back. Not tomorrow and not ever." She also supported local residents to protest against the ceremony, which she described as "unacceptable" and "sectarian."
Carla Lockhart, a Member of Parliament from the Democratic Unionist Party, also stated that local residents should not fear "the thirty-five men who are quietly and orderly passing through a street without a band."
Garvaghy Road was one of the main flashpoints of conflict between Catholics and Protestants in the late 1990s. At that time, clashes between residents and participants in the ceremony often led to disturbances known as the Drumcree dispute.
As part of the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, which largely ended three decades of conflict between the two sides known as the Troubles, an agency was established to regulate contentious parades called the Parades Commission. This commission had repeatedly rejected the Orange Order's requests to hold parades in this area, but this year a High Court ruling overturned the rejection due to procedural errors and accepted the organization's new request.
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