McDonald and O'Neill to be interviewed by PSNI this week over Garvaghy Road protest

Northern Ireland

The Sinn Féin president and vice president both said that standing with the residents was the right thing to do.

SINN FÉIN PRESIDENT Mary Lou McDonald and vice president Michelle O’Neill have confirmed that they will be interviewed by the PSNI this week over their attendance at a protest on Garvaghy Road during the Drumcree parade dispute. 

It relates to alleged breaches of a Parades Commission decision to allow an Orange Order parade to complete its traditional route from Drumcree Church down the largely nationalist Garvaghy Road for the first time for almost 30 years.

The commission’s decision was ultimately overturned by Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Bryant, who banned the parade from taking place after a 13-day stand-off between local residents and the Orange Order. 

The parade was blocked from going ahead as intended on 27 September by local residents, who protested on the road alongside a number of politicians.

The protest grew over two weeks, and while it remained peaceful, it ultimately led to a police assessment that they could not safely escort the procession, which resulted in the ban. 

The PSNI began sending letters to those suspected of potentially breaking the law by being present at the demonstration. Michelle O’Neill subsequently confirmed she had been invited to a police interview.

In a statement on X this afternoon, the Northern Ireland first minister said: “I will be interviewed by the PSNI later this week in relation to the peaceful protest in solidarity with Garvaghy Road residents.

“Alongside many others, I was proud to stand with the Garvaghy Road community to protect 28 years of peace and progress. I will always stand up for what is right,” she said.

“We have come too far to allow our society to be dragged backwards to the days of domination and supremacy.”

She added: “Everyone must be allowed to live their lives free from sectarian intimidation and harassment. There is no going back. Not now. Not ever.”

I will be interviewed by the PSNI this week in relation to the peaceful protest on the Garvaghy Road. I stood with the Garvaghy Road residents to protect 28 years of peace and progress, and it was the right thing to do. From right across Ireland and the world, people stood and spoke with one voice to say clearly that they would not be dragged back to the past. The Garvaghy Road community has the right to free from sectarian intimidation and harassment. There is no going back. Not now. Not ever.

— Mary Lou McDonald (@MaryLouMcDonald) October 19, 2026

Mary Lou McDonald has also confirmed that she will be interviewed by the PSNI this week for being at the protest. 

In a similarly-worded statement, she said standing with the Garvaghy Road residents was the right thing to do.

“From right across Ireland and the world, people stood and spoke with one voice to say clearly that they would not be dragged back to the past.”

Echoing O’Neill’s words, she added: “The Garvaghy Road community has the right to free from sectarian intimidation and harassment. There is no going back. Not now. Not ever.”

Other Sinn Féin politicians, as well as those from the SDLP and People Before Profit, have received letters from the PSNI inviting them to interviews. 

Unionists have criticised O’Neill and others for having been in the area of the Garvaghy Road during the protest.

Last week, she survived a TUV motion to remove her from office over the matter. The motion received 34 of 70 votes, none of which were nationalist votes, meaning it fell well short of the cross-community support required from a majority of both unionist and nationalist MLAs to remove a minister.

Orange Order legal challenge

Separately today, a court is hearing a legal challenge to the decision by Chris Bryant to ban the parade, which has been taken by the Orange Order.

It includes a challenge to the decision by PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher to ask Bryant to review the determination made by the Parades Commission, which had given the go-ahead for the parade.

During the hearing, Richard McConkey KC, who represents a member of the Orange Order who has brought the challenge, said the case did not require the court to decide if the parade should have proceeded, but it “concerns the legality of the decision-making route” to ban the parade.

The barrister read from an intelligence assessment provided by the chief constable to the Northern Ireland Secretary about the security situation.

He said the assessment had said it was “almost certain” the parade would be accompanied by a protest on the Garvaghy Road.

He said: “It continues, ‘it is highly likely that persons will continue to travel to Garvaghy Road from across Northern Ireland to support protest activity and it is highly likely that the protest will continue to involve significant numbers of persons, and will continue to seek to block the road to prevent a parade in Garvaghy Road’.”

McConkey said the assessment then records “significantly more serious intelligence”.

The barrister added: “It goes on, ‘It is almost certain that dissident republicans have attended the protest, and it is possible that dissident republicans have already accessed the firearms in the Garvaghy Road area, and it is possible that in the event of police removing protesters, firearms may be used to attack police’.

“There is then reliable intelligence indicating that mainstream republicans are concerned about their ability to prevent disorder or control dissident republicans, and it remains likely that the police intervention will be met with serious disorder, which may involve the use of petrol bombs.”

The barrister said police were “assessing a developing and potentially extremely serious public order situation”.

The barrister then referred to a senior officer having access to nine intelligence risk assessments on 7 October, two days before the parade was banned.

McConkey said a police record from the officer included the phrase “the feelings of the PIRA”.

He said: “The ‘feelings of the PIRA’ is the language of the contemporaneous police record, and I rehearse it because it’s one of the matters in which Silver (Command) was expressly mindful, according to the documents.”

McConkey then turned to a statement from Boutcher stating the parade could have caused serious disorder which could have had “catastrophic, potentially long term consequences” for the Northern Ireland Executive and the peace process.

He said: “The question is whether the preservation of the Northern Ireland Executive or of the wider peace process was treated as an independent end in itself.”

The barrister said the “preservation of a political institution or political process” is not a freestanding policing function.

Barrister for the PSNI, Peter Coll KC, said the Chief Constable had to look at a “bigger picture” than police commanders on the ground.

He said: “By this stage, by 9 October, what essentially had developed had been a stalemate position between the respective parties, with the police in the middle.

“So, essentially, the police position was no viable means of actually achieving this procession being completed in compliance with the determination on an operational basis.”

He added: “One might ask the rhetorical question how long should the police allow the situation to go on without trying to take some kind of a step to bring it to a position that somebody makes a decision about what is going to happen?”

The barrister said the PSNI operation had already been in place “substantially longer” than had been envisaged.

He said the PSNI assessment was that all “lawful and proportionate options” to facilitate the policing of the parade had been “exhausted”.

The barrister said any attempt to facilitate the parade down the road “would have involved substantial public order intervention”.

He said this would have carried an “unacceptable risk of serious injury to the public, to police officers, with serious and prolonged disorder, and a wider contagion effect, with disorder and significant further impact on policing across Northern Ireland”.

Coll added: “The current policing operation, as with that date, simply could not be sustained indefinitely.

“In the chief constable’s judgment, it was no longer viable to give effect to the police commissioner’s determination.”

The hearing continues.

With reporting from Press Association