Garvaghy Road

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the original decision to allow the march take place was ‘incomprehensible and wrong’.

LAST UPDATE | 4 hrs ago

AN ORANGE ORDER march on Garvaghy Road has remained stalled for hours after a large crowd of protesters, including multiple Dáil TDs, gathered in the area to prevent the parade going ahead.

Taoiseach Micheál Martin has said the original decision of the Parades Commission to allow the march take place was “incomprehensible and wrong”, as he appealed for calm.

Speaking to reporters in Ennis, Martin said that most people anticipated that the Drumcree parade would not take place in Portadown, given it has been banned for 28 years, but added that he was “conscious” of the court decision overnight.

“I would appeal for calm on all sides,” Martin continued.

Protesters block the Garvaghy road ahead of what would be the first Portadown District Loyal Orange Lodge march in the area for almost 30 years, after the parade was given clearance in a late-night hearing. Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Helen McEntee said she is “very concerned” at the situation on the ground on the Garvaghy Road.

She said there has been significant progress over the past 30 years regarding these marches and her primary concern is avoiding a “return to the divisions of the past”.

McEntee said she is conscious of the fears and concerns of the road’s residents, and said it is the responsibility of leaders to help de-escalate the situation.

She and UK government’s Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant are in “close contact” and she pledged to engage closely with the British government, parties in the north and those on the ground.

Bryant was cutting his time at Labour’s party conference in Liverpool short to travel to Belfast and speak directly with leaders there to try and ease the stand-off in Portadown, Co Armagh.

On Sunday morning, Bryant criticised Irish politicians north and south for supporting the Garvaghy Road residents, telling Sky News: “I don’t think any elected politicians should be supporting an illegal protest.”

The march was due to depart Drumcree church at 8am and head from the townland into the town, but it is not clear when it will get underway.

According to the ruling that granted the Orangemen the right to march, it was to finish no later than 9.30am.

But the Orangemen have yet to give up the chance of marching, meaning that the stand-off could continue for several more hours on Sunday.

The head of the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) Chief Constable Jon Boutcher called for “those with influence to encourage people to comply with the law” amid a large protest blocking the Garvaghy Road.

The march was allowed to go ahead after a ruling was upheld in the early hours on Sunday in an “unprecedented” late-night sitting of the High Court in Belfast.

In a hearing concluding at 2.15am, legal teams repeated their arguments over the contentious Drumcree parade in Portadown, Co Armagh, which was a notorious flashpoint of the Troubles in the 90s.

Orange brethren prepare for their parade from Drumcree Church pic.twitter.com/AATS0gm1eI

— Belfast News Letter (@News_Letter) September 27, 2026

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham has appealed for calm on all sides amid plans for an Orange Order parade to pass through a predominantly nationalist area of Northern Ireland for the first time in decades.

Thousands of protesters blocked the Garvaghy Road in Portadown in a bid to prevent the parade of Orangemen passing, following the overnight court ruling in Belfast which said the march could go ahead.

The Drumcree parade, which was associated with violent clashes during the Troubles, has been banned since 1998.

Amid the community tensions, the prime minister told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg there have been “big gains made in Northern Ireland, and we don’t want to see things go backwards”.

“I know it’s a tense situation. We do appeal for calm on all sides,” he told the programme.

Bryant, the UK government’s NI secretary, told the BBC he wished “we weren’t in this position”, adding: “I know lots of people will be watching this very, very closely, including people who have long memories of things that happened 30 years ago, and people will be very nervous and anxious.

He said he would have preferred “we weren’t looking at relitigating things of the past”, before saying that everyone needed to abide by the court’s overnight decision.

“But the court decided that the adjudication, the determination of the Parades Commission stood. So it’s important that everybody abides by the law,” Bryant said.

Several Oireachtas TDs have gone to Garvaghy Road this weekend, including from Sinn Féin and People Before Profit.

Videos posted on social media on Sunday morning show roads blocked off with cars around Garvaghy Road, along with a heavy police presence ahead of the march taking place at 8am.

Politicians who have gone to the town to stand in solidarity with Garvaghy Road residents have said they have been told that the Orange Order members have been advised by the PSNI to remain at Drumcree Church.

However, People Before Profit MLA at Stormont Gerry Carroll said that “nobody here is under any illusions”, as he said there is a belief that Orangemen are “waiting for word that a community can be cleared out of their way” so they can begin the march.

Carroll added that supporters of the Orangemen are standing by in Portadown, with some estimates by local residents claiming there to be more than 1,000 loyalists gathered in the town

“Every family on this road knows exactly where this could lead, from bitter experience,” Carroll said.

Protesters along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown on Sunday morning Alamy Stock Photo Alamy Stock Photo

Michelle O'Neill and Mary Lou McDonald speaking from the scene this morning Sky News Sky News

Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told Sky News just after 8am that the UK government’s Secretary of State and PSNI need to intervene and “put a stop to this”.

“This is madness,” McDonald said.

“We have spent all night here, all night talking to people, listening to people, seeking to reassure people that actually this can be resolved, and it must be,” the Dublin Central TD said.

So here is what needs to happen now – the Secretary of State needs to intervene. The chief constable of the PSNI needs to intervene and put a stop to this… This, in fact, is primitive treatment of any community in the year 2026. It is intolerable, and it will not be tolerated.

Earlier, McDonald called it a “disgraceful” decision in a statement, adding that it was going to “force an unwanted” march through the area, blasting it as a disgraceful decision.

“This march is steeped in a history of hate, sectarian violence, and murder, and championed by Unionist leaders,” McDonald said.

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill told the broadcaster that the whole controversy “calls into question the peace process”, as she said communities cannot be “railroaded”.

People Before Profit MLA Carroll has been joined by his party’s Dublin South-West TD Paul Murphy and Dublin City Councillor Conor Reddy at the road since Saturday night.

The Belfast West MLA said the community has been “held hostage to a march that nobody wants, on a Sunday morning in the rain, while residents try to go about their lives”.

“Keeping the people of the Garvaghy Road on edge for hours on end is simply a siege by another name,” Carroll added.

Thousands of protesters gathering on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown have been notified on a loudspeaker that they are liable for arrest for taking part in an unnoticed parade.

Around 15 minutes before the Orange Order march was due to begin on Sunday morning, the announcement said anyone participating could be prosecuted.

In a statement shortly before 9am Sunday, the Irish government said it has been following court proceedings in Belfast overnight.

“The government is monitoring the situation on the ground closely and will remain in contact with key interlocutors, including the Garvaghy Road residents,” the statement read.

“The Government is very concerned about the situation. Our primary concern remains to avoid a return to the divisions of the past, recalling the significant progress made over many years in furthering reconciliation under the Good Friday Agreement.”

Several members of the Dáil have gone to Portadown to support residents.

People Before Profit TD Paul Murphy is among those posting photos from the scene.

He earlier outlined that police were trying to move protesters away from the area before the march got underway.

Justices Keegan and Humphreys joined Justice Denise McBride in the Court of Appeal which, in the late hours of Saturday, upheld an appeal by the Portadown Orangeman Alan Hynes, to allow the march to go ahead.

The stand-off at Drumcree made headlines in the 1990s, with nationalist residents of the Garvaghy Road opposed to the parade passing through the area, leading to violent clashes for several summers and political tension necessitating a major security operation.

The Orange Order has unsuccessfully applied for more than a quarter of a century to complete its 1998 walk along its traditional route.

On Friday, the commission reversed its long-running determination, to the welcome of unionist parties and outrage of nationalist and republican parties.

Then, on Saturday afternoon, Justice Patricia Smyth blocked the commission decision, saying the “long-running dispute has the potential to escalate” across Northern Ireland.

Under the legal framework around parades in Northern Ireland, if the court simply passed an injunction against the Parades Commission ruling in relation to Drumcree, it would allow the Portadown District to carry out the parade without the restrictions outlined by the commission, because it was legally notified.

Justice Smyth passed an injunction pausing the effect of the Orange Order’s notification of the parade, which counsel for the Garvaghy residents had described as “novel” and John Larkin KC, representing Portadown Orangeman Alan Hynes, as “rewriting history”.

The Orange Order then lodged an appeal, which was upheld, before the case was remitted to the High Court and heard again before a new judge.

Barrister Denise Kiley KC represented the residents of the largely nationalist Garvaghy Road, outlining their position that much remained unclear about the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI)’s threat assessment provided to the Parades Commission.

She said “nowhere” in the PSNI’s contribution to the commission was there “any assessment of future risk” and was “entirely directed to past risk”.

With reporting by Eoghan Dalton and Emma Hickey