No breakthrough in Drumcree crisis as Taoiseach tells Sinn Féin he won’t intervene

The political crisis in Northern Ireland, sparked by last Sunday’s Orange Order parade dispute at Drumcree, is no closer to being resolved. The standoff was continuing on Tuesday night after a second round of talks failed to bring a breakthrough.Northern Secretary Chris Bryant met separately with the order and the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition at Hillsborough Castle on Tuesday, but concerns are growing that the standoff could continue for some time. Talks are expected to resume on Wednesday, but with neither side giving any indication on Tuesday night that their position had changed, the prospect of an agreement appeared slim.Portadown district master Nigel Dawson reiterated that the Orange Order had the legal right to march. “We look forward to the law being applied to the parade,” he said. READ MOREHowever, Garvaghy Road residents’ spokesman Breandán Mac Cionnaith said their message was: “Reroute the sectarian parade.”Speaking to The Irish Times afterwards, he asked to meet with Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, asserting he was “the only person still left for us to meet, if he has the courage to meet us”.In the Northern Assembly, there was a second day of angry clashes between Sinn Féin and unionist politicians, while in the Dáil, Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald told Taoiseach Micheál Martin the Northern Secretary could no longer “sit on his hands”.McDonald asked the Government to encourage Bryant to use his powers by intervening and banning the march. Martin said he did not think it is “as simple as that”, adding “one intervention is not going to resolve it”. He stressed the need for people to “stand back” and called for “some collective pathway . . . with some degree of mediation”.[ Drumcree: ‘I want to stop all this in its tracks. I have five grandchildren; it’s breaking my heart’Opens in new window ]Minister for Foreign Affairs Helen McEntee said she believed it was “likely” an international mediator would be appointed to intervene.There remained a police presence in the Garvaghy Road area of Portadown on Tuesday night. Members of the Orange Order were still inside Drumcree church, while protesters continued to keep watch alongside the Garvaghy Road. Earlier on Tuesday, lawyers for the Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition lodged a legal challenge to the court decision which overturned an earlier injunction banning the parade.The original determination by the Parades Commission granted a limited parade of 35 Orange Order members permission to march from Drumcree Church last Sunday.The fresh application argues the Parades Commission “materially misdirected itself” on the police assessment of the potential for disorder and had not given an “accurate representation of the evidence received from the PSNI” in its decision.The hearing is listed for the Court of Appeal in Belfast on Friday.McDonald and First Minister Michelle O’Neill, who is also Sinn Féin vice president, met the Taoiseach as well as Tánaiste Simon Harris in Government Buildings on Tuesday to discuss the crisis.There have been calls from unionists for O’Neill and McDonald to be prosecuted for their participation in the “unnotified” protest which prevented the march from proceeding on Sunday.Arriving at Government Buildings, O’Neill was asked by the media if she had been contacted by police and if she expected to be arrested. “No, I have not, and no,” she replied, adding that she would “continue to stand with the Garvaghy Road residents”.The PSNI has said it is reviewing the evidence gathered, and anyone who has broken the law will be prosecuted.