​Louth Sinn Féin representatives join Garvaghy Road protest

​Louth Sinn Féin elected representatives, TDs Ruairí Ó Murchú and Joanna Byrne, along with county councillors Sionainn McCann, Kevin Meenan and Pearse McGeough were among hundreds of people who joined the residents of the Garvaghy Road in Portadown at the weekend to stop an Orange Order parade from going through the nationalist area of the town.

​The contested route for the Orange Order parade, being held for the first time in 28 years after last-ditch court battles on Saturday night failed, focused the spotlight on the County Armagh town.

Speaking from the Garvaghy Road on Sunday night, Deputy Ó Murchú said he was ‘immensely proud’ of Louth Sinn Féin members who travelled in numbers to Portadown to join with party colleagues and other political parties and groupings, to stop the Orange Order parade from marching.

He said that he had arrived at Portadown around 3:30pm on Saturday and visited the Drumcree Community Centre, which was hosting a family fun day before it became the centre of the community protests against the Orange Order parade.

He said that people were getting updates all evening and into the night about the court cases and appeals that had been filed and were under consideration by the courts and at around 11pm, people were directed to go onto the Garvaghy Road.

Deputy Ó Murchú said: “From 11pm onwards on Saturday there was a feeling that the march would be given the go-ahead to take place. So, in our hundreds, we made our way onto the road and stayed there, all through the night, in the teeming rain that lasted from dawn to midday.

“It was important to me and to all those who were there that a strong presence remained on the road throughout Sunday. It was our view that once midnight on Sunday passed, the permission granted to the Orange Order by the Parades Commission would lapse and it would then become an illegal march that the police would have to stop.

“I was honoured to stand with the brilliant people of the Garvaghy Road and with other representatives from political parties and organisations whose only goal was to stop the Orangemen marching on the road.

“The people of this area were traumatised by what happened 28 years ago, and remember the 21 people who were killed because of the Orange parade in the late 1990s.

"What happened this weekend retraumatised them again and the only thing we could do was to help them in their resistance.

“And the people here should never have been put in this position. The Secretary of State Chris Byrant and the British Prime Minister Andy Burnham were spectators this weekend, offering hand-wringing and nothing else.

"The Irish government need to engage with the British government in the wake of what has happened this weekend.

“It is disgraceful that a march down the Garvaghy Road is the only thing left that Unionism has left to offer their community”.