O'Neill returns to Garvaghy Road as police investigate Sunday's 'unlawful protest'

Michelle O'Neill has said she is comfortable with her choice to protest against an Orange Order parade on the Garvaghy Road on Sunday.

The Sinn Féin first minister attended the protest that blocked the mainly nationalist road to prevent the parade from happening.

On Wednesday, the PSNI chief constable said there was a large scale criminal investigation under way into the unlawful blocking of Garvaghy Road.

O'Neill said she understands the law, but chose to "stand in solidarity" with residents.

"I believe the right thing is to stand on this road," she said. "What we can't see on this road is the return of a triumphalist march that railroads over the rights of this community."

Earlier, Northern Ireland's top police officer Jon Boutcher said the force's "principal objective" is to police the decision to allow a parade down the Garvaghy Road in Portadown, but added this would not be done "at any cost".

He said the overriding responsibility of police was to keep people safe.

There has been more than three days of stalemate over the Orange Order parade.

O'Neill said on Wednesday that political unionism supporting the Drumcree parade "goes right to the heart of power-sharing".

"I think it does put into question all of the apparatus of the Good Friday Agreement, including the institutions," she added.

"All I can say is that I am committed to trying to make them work, even though they are a very challenging arrangement.

"I've turned up this week to try to make it work, I will continue to do so, as for other's actions, I can't speak for them."

She said Sinn Féin would continue to play its role across the assembly and the executive.

Unionist politicians have been highly critical of nationalist politicians who attended Sunday's protest.

The leader of the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) Gavin Robinson said those in attendance had broken the law.

He met with Boutcher at PSNI headquarters on Wednesday afternoon and speaking afterwards he said the "law applies equally and to everyone".

"We have given him our expectation that within days, if not a week, we need to see the positive out workings of that," he added.

"The rule of law pertains and sustains in our society, that it is not going to be set aside for anyone, no matter who they are."

Robinson also confirmed his party would support efforts by Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) to bring Stormont no-confidence motions against the First Minister and other Sinn Féin ministers who took part in the Garvaghy Road demonstration.

Robinson said that "unionism is being goaded by Sinn Féin to pull down power-sharing".

"That's what they want," he said.

"A victory for Sinn Féin is to see a collapse where they can blame unionists and I'm not a fool, we are not fools."

Robinson added that all options were "open" as the party considers their response to the recent parading controversy.

The Ulster Unionist Party leader, Jon Burrows, said Michelle O'Neill had "defied the rule of law".

He said it was "shameful".

"If you had of had a unionist politician linking arms and blocking the instructions of the police, committing crimes, there would be an outrage and rightly so."

On Sunday, because the road was blocked, police stopped Orangemen leaving Drumcree Church.

Subsequent attempts since then have also been prevented by police.

On Monday, Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson said police were not able to allow the parade because of an "unlawful and unnotified protest", adding that removing the protesters from the Garvaghy Road would have significantly jeopardised public safety.

Protesters remain along the road.

The Orangemen who had been at Drumcree church since Sunday morning left on Tuesday night, but returned on Wednesday morning.

The Orange Order has said it was disappointed and frustrated by a "lack of a proper policing plan" to allow the march to go ahead.

Boutcher offered to meet both sides in the stalemate, the Orange Order and the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition.

Separate talks are continuing between Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant and the respective sides in an effort to break the stand-off.

The residents have also launched a fresh legal bid to stop the parade from going ahead, which is due to be heard on Friday.

Earlier, Boutcher said that the stalemate meant the police had "once again become the shock absorber of our society".

He also said that people needed to focus on "solving this situation once and for all".

Boutcher said his officers would "continue to police Drumcree and our communities independently and impartially".

"To be clear the upholding of the Parades Commission determination does not come at any cost," he added.

"The outstanding officers of the PSNI and our mutual aid colleagues will not allow society to implode into violent disorder and mob rule must not be allowed to win."

It appears, as things stand, that PSNI cannot police the Parades Commission determination.

It is hoping that an agreed way forward can somehow be found through talks and it continues to assess whether the determination can be enforced.

But any move would see hundreds of protesters back on the Garvaghy Road, in essence re-creating the circumstances that stopped Sunday's parade.

The PSNI also does not want to "torpedo" talks being held by the secretary of state.

Not for the first time, it finds itself in no-win situation, damned no matter which course of action it takes in the absence of some negotiated plan.

There is also unhappiness at how the Parades Commission presented the police advice in its determination.

The ruling said the police had "no information" the parade would result in disorder, only to look foolish 48 hours later.

However, a court judgement published on Tuesday night tells a different story.

It states a range of potential scenarios had been mapped out, from a peaceful parade to "violent disorder".

In just over a month's time, the PSNI will mark its 25th anniversary.

And here it finds itself – in the middle of a dispute which is older than it is.

The Drumcree parade, which in the 1990s sparked some of the most serious disorder in Northern Ireland's history, was due to go ahead for the first time in 30 years after a series of legal challenges.

Since 1998, the Order had been banned from completing its Drumcree march - and until this year had been repeatedly refused permission to finish the route by the Parades Commission, which was set up to adjudicate disputes.

The Orange Order is a Protestant pro-British organisation.

Many Catholics see its marches as sectarian and object to them passing through, or close to, Catholic or nationalist areas.

The Garvaghy Road had been part of the Drumcree route, but by the mid 1990s nationalist residents protested against the parade.

When the Orange Order was prevented by police from walking down the route in July 1995, there was a tense stand-off. It was the same for the next three years.

Violence related to the dispute resulted in riots, roadblocks and murders across Northern Ireland.