PORTADOWN, NORTHERN IRELAND - SEPTEMBER 27: Protesters hold banners as they gather on Garvaghy Road on September 27, 2026 in Portadown, Northern Ireland. Following a string of legal challenges, the High Court has ruled the contentious Orange Order's march could go ahead today, following a route down Portadown's Garvaghy Road for the first time in nearly three decades. The Drumcree Parade has been denied permission since 1998 to follow what the Orange Order loyalists say is their traditional route down the primarily nationalist Garvaghy Road, but in August the High Court ruled that the commission could not impose restrictions on the parade due to a procedural error. The long-standing dispute over the parade has previously led to sectarian violence dating back to The Troubles in Northern Ireland. (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
Protesters hold banners as they gather on Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Northern Ireland, on September 27, 2026 [Charles McQuillan/Getty Images]
Published On 9 Oct 2026

Northern Irish police have contacted representatives of Sinn Fein in an investigation into a protest that blocked a Protestant parade from marching through a Catholic area, the party said.

The Sinn Fein party leads Northern Ireland’s power-sharing government alongside its main pro-British rival, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP), which has called for Sinn Fein lawmakers to be prosecuted.

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In a statement posted to Facebook on Thursday, Sinn Fein confirmed “that a number of its representatives and party members received correspondence” from police.

“Sinn Fein will continue to stand with the Garvaghy Road residents who should be allowed to live in peace and free from sectarian intimidation,” the party said in the statement.

It added they have “stood with residents of the Garvaghy Road for the last two weeks in the face of provocation and the threat of an unwanted Orange march through their community”.

March permitted

Northern Ireland’s High Court permitted the Protestant Orange Order to march on the Catholic Garvaghy Road for the first time in 28 years.

Police opened an investigation into what they called the unlawful protest of the march, and said people reasonably suspected of committing offences will receive letters for interviews.

Sinn Fein First Minister Michelle O’Neill and Sinn Fein President Mary Lou McDonald participated in the protests.

The DUP called for O’Neill and other lawmakers to be prosecuted.

“A political title is not a shield, and no one is above the law,” the party said in a statement on Thursday.

Before the Good Friday Agreement was signed, annual attempts by the Orange Order to march through the area triggered unrest across the British-run region until the route was banned in 1998.

The standoff has become a political crisis in Northern Ireland, affecting the region’s power-sharing government.