Northern Ireland leader accused of joining ‘mob’ to block Protestant parade
Unionists demand criminal consequences for First Minister Michelle O’Neill of Sinn Féin — who joined the road blockade against the Orange Order — as Northern Ireland’s government threatens to unravel.
Northern Ireland's cross-community government leaders have traded accusations over the rights and wrongs of a long-banned Protestant parade in Portadown, threatening to dismantle their fragile coalition. The Democratic Unionist Party's Emma Little-Pengelly accused Sinn Féin's Michelle O'Neill of joining a "mob" to block the parade, alleging that O'Neill stood "shoulder to shoulder" with the outlawed Provisional IRA and IRA dissidents.
O'Neill countered that the Orange Order and the Democratic Unionists wanted to trample the rights of Catholics living along the route. The planned parade, approved by the Parades Commission, was blocked by several hundred protesters, leading O'Neill to urge locals to continue blocking the road past midnight. The incident has fueled tensions between unionists and nationalists, with unionists eyeing the possibility of the Democratic Unionists withdrawing from the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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