First Minister Michelle O'Neill has dismissed a call from the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to resign over her role in protests against the Drumcree parade. The Sinn Féin vice-president was branded the "first minister of lawlessness" as unionists criticised the demonstrations on Garvaghy Road. Police are investigating the unlawful protests which blocked an Orange Order march from passing along the mainly nationalist street in Portadown, County Armagh.
Facing questions in the Stormont assembly, O'Neill said she was "proud" to stand with the residents and "will continue to stand with them". She described the planned Orange march on 27 September as "unwanted, sectarian and triumphalist". O'Neill was speaking on Monday in response to an urgent question on the Drumcree dispute tabled by DUP assembly member Phillip Brett.
O'Neill returns to Garvaghy Road as police investigate Sunday's 'unlawful protest' Court of Appeal reserves judgement over Drumcree parade dispute An uneasy peace – how a week of the Drumcree parade dispute has unfolded He called on O'Neill to "drop the bravado" and claimed she had shown "utter contempt" for the ministerial pledge of office. Brett continued: "If you have been found to breach the ministerial code or the law, will you do the decent thing for once and resign as first minister?" The first minister responded: "Catch yourself on, would be where I would start with that one. "I'm going to continue to turn up for the people of the Garvaghy Road.
"I'm proud to stand with them and I will continue to stand with them." Traditional Unionist Voice (TUV) assembly member Timothy Gaston accused O'Neill of being the "first minister of lawlessness" over her role in the street protests. O'Neill replied: "I am the first minister of what is right." She added that "we won't need to AI it" - a reference to a TUV councillor who posted online an AI image which exaggerated the size of a loyalist rally in Portadown. DUP assembly member Jonathan Buckley questioned whether O'Neill would "accept and abide by the lawful decision of the courts" when appeal court judges make a ruling on the parade dispute.
The first minister said that "when the law is wrong I will stand firmly against it" and described the planned march as "morally wrong". O'Neill later said "shame on you" to DUP assembly members over the party's handling of the Drumcree dispute. "Your party has championed this," she said to DUP members on the opposite benches.
O'Neill flatly rejected a claim from Ulster Unionist Party (UUP) leader Jon Burrows that many people now regarded the first minister as "completely morally bankrupt". Earlier, Stormont Speaker Edwin Poots raised concerns over the first minister not attending the chamber last week to answer the tabled urgent question. The DUP assembly member said O'Neill's absence last Monday was "discourteous" to the assembly and the public.
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