Drumcree Blockade Lifts Overnight as Bryant and Boutcher Agree to Talks
Thousands held the Garvaghy Road all day and the thirty-five Orangemen never walked it. Around midnight the residents’ coalition told the crowd it had commitments the parade would not proceed overnight, and announced meetings this morning with the Northern Ireland Secretary and the Chief Constable. “We’ve stopped them once,” said Breandán Mac Cionnaith. “The process now is to ensure we stop them permanently.”
A court cleared the parade at a quarter past two in the morning and a crowd stopped it by eight, which leaves the state having upheld a right it could not deliver. Sir Chris Bryant framed today’s meetings as an attempt to avoid regression — “nobody wants to go back 28 years” — and said the point of coming was “to be able to try and be able to talk specifically face to face to some of the political leaders and some of the community leaders to see if we can get to a settled position”. The Chief Constable Jon Boutcher said his officers had been gathering evidence of “whatever has been happening from whatever party”, which is a careful way of noting that the blockade itself was unlawful and that Stormont’s First Minister stood on it. The Order says it still demands the parade goes ahead. The Assembly sits this afternoon. Watch whether anyone is prosecuted.