DONEGAL TD Padraig MacLochlainn remained at the Drumcree standoff today and vowed “this has to be stopped”.
He was there while Orange Order demanded at Drumcree in Portadown that the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) should allow them to march through the town in Co Armagh.
Deputy MacLochlainn today (Monday) told the Donegal News: “The British Secretary of State now needs to intervene. This cannot go ahead.
“They must see now that the decision of the Parades Commission was wrong. It was a serious miscalculation by the commission and this has to be stopped.
“Forcing marches down communities that don’t want them are over. We’re not going back to the past.”
Donegal TD Pádraig MacLochlainn.
Portadown deputy district master Alastair Power claimed that a member of the public was allowed to walk down the Garvaghy Road, which is mostly Nationalist.
He then called for the PSNI’s chief constable Jon Boutcher to resign over the handling of the Drumcree parade dispute.
The Orange Order was set to parade down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown for the first time in almost 30 years.
The Donegal News reported earlier today that deputy MacLochlainn accused those behind the Orange Order parade on the Garvaghy Road of tearing up the peace process.
He his party colleague, deputy Pearse Doherty, were among the protestors who gathered to block the route of the controversial parade.
Deputy MacLochlainn told the Donegal News: “I never imagined that [the Orange Order] would be given permission to march down the Garvaghy Road. It’s shocking really.”
He added: “They have basically torn up the peace process in terms of respect for all different perspectives.”