Tensions rose in Northern Ireland on Sunday after thousands of protesters prevented a controversial parade from passing through the town of Portadown. The protesters, many wearing balaclavas, gathered on a street in the city, where many are in favor of unification with the Republic of Ireland. They came after an early decision by Belfast High Court to give the parade the green light. Sinn Féin president Mary Lou McDonald and Prime Minister Michelle O’Neill are among the protesters blocking the road, according to BBC News. O’Neill urged the crowd to stay at least until midnight. Loyalist supporters and Orange Order men clash with police outside Drumcree Church where they have formed a barricade to prevent them from entering Garvaghy Road. Peter Morrison/PA Images via Getty Images Gavin Robinson, the leader of the loyal Democratic Unionist Party, accused O’Neill and his party of breaking the law and “giving two fingers to the police, the courts and the rule of law,” according to the BBC. It is the first time in almost 30 years that the Orange Order parade has been allowed along Garvaghy Road, which had been a notorious flashpoint between the communities in the years before the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that largely ended the bloodshed in Northern Ireland. During the so-called riots, about 3,600 people were killed and about 50,000 injured. Ending the Troubles meant balancing competing identities in Northern Ireland, which remained in the United Kingdom when the rest of Ireland gained independence a century ago. Irish nationalists in the north, most of them Catholic, seek union with the Republic of Ireland, while largely Protestant unionists want to remain part of the UK’s Portadown Orangemen march from Drumcree Church to begin their march towards Garvaghy Road, which was stopped shortly afterwards by police, in Portadown, Northern Ireland, on September 27, 2026. Paul Faith /AFP via Getty Images Both sides appeared to adhere. to calls from across the political spectrum, including British Prime Minister Andy. Burnham, to avoid further fueling tensions. “I hope we bring all of today’s events to a sensible and peaceful conclusion,” said Jon Boutcher, chief of the Police Service of Northern Ireland. Boutcher said there were many “sensible voices” calling for calm which he thought had been “heard by all sides”. Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill, who represents Sinn Féin, the party historically linked to the Irish Republican Army, faced criticism for attending the unlicensed protest on Garvaghy Road to support “She is the head of an executive and she is willing to willfully ignore the ruling of our courts, the determination of the statutory body charged with determining parades in Northern Ireland,” said Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest pro-U.K. party in Ireland. of the North. O’Neill, whose government is made up of a cross-section of Northern Ireland parties as part of the power-sharing agreement within the Good Friday Agreement, defended his actions, saying that “the progress of the last 28 years has been called into question by the actions of the Orange Order and those within political unionism who want to drag us backwards.” For days, there was uncertainty over whether the parade, which celebrates Northern Ireland’s Protestant heritage and its links to the United Kingdom, received the final go-ahead in court. The hearing concluded at 2:15 a.m. Sunday, a move that prompted protesters to take to the streets. The Orange Order is named after William of Orange, a Protestant prince of Holland who defeated the Catholic King James to assume the British throne in the 17th century. More from CBS News Go deeper with The Free Press
