Escalating Crisis Over Pro-British March at Northern Ireland Flashpoint Raises Specter of ‘The Troubles’

The first march in 30 years by a group known as the “Orange Order” down Garvaghy Road in Northern Ireland is evolving into a flashpoint that is threatening to disrupt a fragile peace in a territory once wracked by sectarian carnage. The march is at a fraught standstill, with marchers and protesters poised on a knife’s edge, with a hearing scheduled for Friday to find a path forward.The Orange Order is a Protestant pro-British organisation that supports Northern Ireland’s current status as part of the United Kingdom. The Garvaghy Road at Portadown is a largely Catholic area whose residents support a united Ireland that would swallow up the six counties that now make up Northern Ireland. A judge on Sunday ruled, after three separate legal hearings over the course of 13 hours, that the march could proceed after a decades-long ban on account of violence that occurred at marches in the 1990s, which claimed 21 lives. The ban was motivated by memories of the Troubles, the long stretch of violence between Protestant unionists — as well as the British Army — and Catholic Republicans, most notably the Provisional Republican Army. Some 3,500 people died in the Troubles, more than half of them civilians.The grueling urban warfare of the Troubles, which stretched over three decades, finally came to an end with the Good Friday Agreement of 1998. That accord provided for a power sharing agreement for Northern Ireland, which is now governed by a devolved Parliament, Stormont, as well as the secretary of state for Northern Ireland, who reports to Prime Minister Andy Burnham. The secretary of state for Northern Ireland is mandated to call a referendum if it appears likely that a majority of voters would choose to leave the United Kingdom.Even after the parade was approved over the weekend — for around 35 people, with no music permitted — hundreds of protesters have blocked the path, resulting in a tense standoff. Among those obstructing the march were the president of the leftist and republican Sinn Féin party, Mary Lou McDonald, as well as the first minister of Northern Ireland, Michelle O’Neill. On Tuesday Ms. O’Neill declared that “There can be no Orange march forced through the Garvaghy Road community.”On Tuesday a group of Garvaghy Road residents told the Belfast Telegraph that any prospect of mediation is “dead in the water.” Ms. O’Neill declares that the residents who live near Garvaghy Road —like her, both Catholic and Republican — “have suffered generations of sectarian domination, intimidation and violence.” Meanwhile, the loyalists assert that the blocking of the parade means that the rule of law has been “hugely damaged” and that faith in the law “continues to erode.” , One former member of the IRA, Breandán Mac Cionnaith — he was jailed for bombing a local Orange Order hall — tells the Irish Times that “Nobody saw this coming. I never thought we’d see this again. It’s like we’ve woken from a bad dream.” Mr. Mac Cionnaith, who is serving as an unofficial spokesman for the Garvaghy Road residents, was once described by Prime Minister Tony Blair as someone who “took unreasonableness to an art form.”Mr. Mac Cionnaith was caught on video telling police officers that there could be “no negotiation” with the marchers. He has also declared that “no parade is no parade.” On Sunday, no less a figure than Gerry Adams arrived to support those opposing the march. Mr. Adams is widely reckoned to have been a commander in the IRA during the Troubles, though he has always denied any such affiliation, which has never been proven in court. The question of a united Ireland — which dates back more than a century to the creation of the country after the Irish War of Independence — gained new salience earlier this month when President Trump declared that Dublin that he would “love” to see a united Ireland and called a “merger” between the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland a “fantastic” and “natural” thing that would “happen eventually.” Those remarks were celebrated by the likes of Sinn Féin and condemned by unionist leaders.Mr. Trump’s apparent endorsement of a united Ireland came soon after Mr. Burnham declared at Belfast that a referendum on the possibility of a united Ireland was “off the table.” Instead, the premier asserted, “We need to fix the things right in front of us in the here and now.”

Escalating Crisis Over Pro-British March at Northern Ireland Flashpoint Raises Specter of ‘The Troubles’

Escalating Crisis Over Pro-British March at Northern Ireland Flashpoint Raises Specter of ‘The Troubles’

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