‘Orange state is gone forever’, Michelle O’Neill tells Assembly

First Minister Michelle O’Neill has said “the Orange state is gone forever” as she responded to a motion of no confidence in the Stormont assembly over her attendance at a protest against an Orange Order march. DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley said Sinn Féin’s “new Ireland project stands dead in the streets of Portadown”, speaking in the debate on the non-binding motions also levied against three other Sinn Féin Executive ministers.

The motions, backed by the three unionist parties, allege Ms O’Neill, Finance Minister John O’Dowd, Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald and Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins broke their pledge of office through backing the Garvaghy Road residents in the Drumcree parade dispute. The row has engulfed Northern Ireland politics since the region’s Parades Commission ruled more than two weeks ago that the Portadown district of the Orange Order should be allowed to march through the largely nationalist enclave for the first time in 28 years.

Following the ruling thousands of protesters blocked the Garvaghy Road preventing the march from going ahead, joined by a number of Sinn Féin representatives including Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald and vice-president Ms O’Neill. First Minister Michelle O’Neill facing questions from the media on the Garvaghy Road (Mark Marlow/PA) Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant intervened to overturn the Parades Commission decision, saying he had been advised by PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher that allowing the march to go ahead could lead to serious disorder, and potentially “catastrophic” consequences for Stormont and the peace process.

Ms O’Neill told MLAs during the debate on Monday evening that a section of political unionism is determined to “drag us back”. “They have tried to turn back the clock. Turn it back to a failed past of sectarian domination and inequity, and unfortunately, they are leading the rest of political unionism by the nose,” she said.

“So when unionist politicians talk about the mob, when they demand that the sanitising of the Garvaghy Road is done, what they really, really mean, what they’re actually saying out loud, is what they want, which is – they wanted the PSNI that they should have beat and dragged peaceful residents off their own road over the last number of weeks, just to allow a triumphalist and sectarian march through this small Catholic community.

“Because that is what the RUC and the British Army did in the years gone by. What they did willingly, I would add. “But I would say to those in political unionism this is not 1690.

This is not 1921. It’s not 1969. It’s not even 1997.

“It’s 2026, folks, and the Orange state is gone forever. There is and will be no going back.” Mr Buckley said Sinn Féin’s “new Ireland project stands dead in the streets of Portadown” and referred to Ms O’Neill’s description of the march as “a sectarian hate march”. “Another member was saying that the Orange Order were akin to the Ku Klux Klan,” he said.

“Beyond disgraceful for people that you once proclaimed to be your neighbours. “They do not seek domination. They do not seek triumphalism.

They seek accommodation, and a First Minister that cannot accommodate 35 Orangemen – I can tell (Ms O’Neill) is prickled by this, she’s prickled because she knows the mask has slipped.” TUV MLA Timothy Gaston said “Northern Ireland is at a crossroads” as he called on DUP leader Gavin Robinson to remove deputy first minister Emma Little-Pengelly, therefore also taking Ms O’Neill from her post.

“The central issue before the House here today is this: if a determination can be set aside simply because Republican protesters object to it, what confidence can any loyalist, any Orangeman, any unionist have in an impartial administration of justice here in Northern Ireland?” he said.

Jonathan Buckley said Sinn Féin’s ‘new Ireland project stands dead in the streets of Portadown’ Mr O’Dowd said nationalists “will never, ever again be beaten off the streets to satisfy the needs of regressive political unionism”. “Those days are over, over, and (Mr Gaston) and others may hanker after them, but they’re not coming back,” he told MLAs.

UUP leader Jon Burrows said: “Unlike Sinn Féin, I will say to the Protestant unionist, loyalist community, notify the parades, notify your protests, don’t break the law. “I can say that, and you can’t and you talk about leadership. There’s no leadership in you.” He added: “(Mr Buckley) is right.

Your new Ireland is dead in the water. It died on the Garvaghy Road.” Alliance deputy leader Eóin Tennyson said the public wants political leaders “to bring people back together after what has been a shameful and torturous few weeks”. “If the past few weeks have shown us anything, it’s been that we have been deluding ourselves,” he said.

“We have simply been managing division and sectarianism in this society, rather than doing the hard yard of breaking it down and overcoming it once and for all, that needs to be our priority now.” If passed, the motions would see those ministers excluded from holding office as minister or junior minister for a period of 12 months.

However, to pass the motions will require cross-community support which is not expected to happen. In a statement on Monday Mr Boutcher stood by the policing of the stand-off saying that while the PSNI have been “mindful of the importance of facilitating the determination”, he said that “did not mean, as many people have suggested, that the police had to ensure the parade could proceed at all costs”.

“It was my ongoing assessment that short of a major public order operation, that would require substantial numbers of protected officers and specialist capabilities with a likelihood of prolonged disorder resulting in injuries to the public and officers, with an impact beyond Portadown, the parade could not be safely undertaken,” he said, He added: “The place for resolving this dispute must not be on the streets of Northern Ireland.” Posters at the Garvaghy Road in Portadown (Liam McBurney/PA) Earlier on Monday, a judicial review was heard in court from members of the Orange Order challenging Sir Chris’s decision to halt the parade.

Mr Justice Scoffield ordered a rolled up hearing in the judicial review case, which will combine two stages of the process into one hearing. The challenge has been widened to include Mr Boutcher. Speaking outside court after the brief hearing, loyalist activist Jamie Bryson said: “The case has been amended and widened to include a challenge against the Chief Constable, that is focused on what is alleged to be the Chief Constable taking into account political considerations in respect of his decision to refer the matter to the Secretary of State.

“If successful, the decision to prohibit the parade will be quashed and the Portadown District will be back marching on the spot on Drumcree Hill, ready to complete their lawful parade which they have been unlawfully denied by the rule of the mob over the last two weeks. “There is a significant week ahead of legal cases in respect of arriving at some kind of final outcome in respect of this.

“The district’s position is they have always said that they will abide by the law, they will respect the law.”