Orange Order Marches Down Portadown's Garvaghy Road for the First Time in Nearly 30 Years

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham appealed for calm in Northern Ireland on Sunday after Belfast's High Court, in a sitting that ended at 2:15 a.m., cleared the Orange Order to parade down Portadown's Garvaghy Road for the first time in nearly three decades.

Thousands of protesters, many wearing balaclavas, held up the march by blocking the unionist brotherhood from proceeding down the street, which runs through a mostly nationalist part of the County Armagh town where many residents favor unification with the Republic of Ireland. Burnham urged "calm on all sides," saying there have been "big gains made in Northern Ireland, and we don't want to see things go backwards."

The Garvaghy Road was one of the most notorious flashpoints of the 1990s, when standoffs over the annual Drumcree parade brought days of rioting before the Good Friday Agreement of 1998 largely ended the bloodshed of the Troubles. Some 3,600 people were killed and about 50,000 wounded during that conflict. "I wish we weren't in this position. I wish we weren't looking at relitigating things of the past," Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant told BBC News.

Jon Boutcher, chief constable of the Police Service of Northern Ireland, called on "those with influence to encourage people to comply with the law," a reference to the protest blocking the road. He said there had been no signs of violence or disorder. "It is incumbent on us all to come together at times like this to do all we can to preserve a peaceful Northern Ireland," he said.

The ruling split the region's political leaders along familiar lines. First Minister Michelle O'Neill of Sinn Féin, the party historically linked to the Irish Republican Army, joined the counterprotest on the Garvaghy Road and said the decision "brings into question how this whole peace process works." "The progress of the last 28 years have been brought into question by the actions of the Orange Order and those within political unionism that want to drag us backwards," she said. Gavin Robinson, leader of the Democratic Unionist Party, the largest pro-U.K. party, accused Sinn Féin of inflaming tensions. "The rule of law cannot apply only when Sinn Féin likes the outcome," he said. "Our institutions are founded on respect for the police, the courts and the rule of law."

The Orange Order takes its name from William of Orange, the Protestant Dutch prince who defeated the Catholic King James II to take the English throne in the 17th century. Its marches celebrate that victory and are seen by many unionists as an expression of Protestant heritage and loyalty to the United Kingdom, and by many nationalists as triumphalist.

The standoff comes at a delicate moment for the union. Earlier this month, for the first time, the first ministers of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland all belonged to parties that want to leave the United Kingdom, and their parties signed a pact in Cardiff declaring that Westminster's time was coming to an end.