THE stand-off at Drumcree continued on Monday as protesters lined the Garvaghy Road and police prevented Orange Order members from departing Drumcree Church. 

On Garvaghy Road itself spirits were high as residents enjoyed the autumn sunshine and musicians played music and sang songs to the growing crowds throughout the day.

Residents sitting out in the autumn sun today
2Gallery

Residents sitting out in the autumn sun today

Speaking to the Andersonstown News, Jamie Bryson, legal advisor to the Portadown District, said that he hopes "the law is applied" and that "the law has determined that the parade should proceed"

Mr Bryson said that members of the Orange Order are "very angry" with the police but that they are in "very good spirits". He repeated his call for the Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson to resign, saying that he presided over a "disastrous fiasco" on Sunday.

Referring to Jon Boutcher, Mr Bryson said that "as Chief Constable of the Police he is responsible for what they do, so he probably should consider his position".

Sinn Féin MP for North Belfast, John Finucane, told the Andersonstown News that twenty-eight years of peace on the Garvaghy Road "must be protected" and questioned why the Orange Order seek to "open one of the darkest chapters of our history".

"It's important that we do revisit what this is all about. I'm not from this area, but I felt that in the 1990s. The fear, the threat, the intimidation. I watched as twenty-one people were murdered right across our society as a result of the violence and tension at Drumcree."

Mr Finucane said he had spoken to families who have a memory of the "hurt and fear", but that he was also struck by the generation who had no memory of Garvaghy Road (in the 1990s), and who had "enjoyed twenty-eight years of peace".

"The time ahead needs to be walked through very carefully," he continued. "We believe in the Good Friday Agreement. 

"What that actually means is we work every aspect of the Good Friday Agreement, even the parts that are incredibly difficult.

He said that the DUP had "put themselves in lockstep with right-wing loyalism and the Orange Order". He asked why the Orange Order "sees to re-traumatise this community" and that the Drumcree dispute "touches something quite deep right across this society and across the island and around the world".

Gerard Rice from the Lower Ormeau Residents' Action Group in South Belfast said that the Ormeau Road has also "suffered at the hands of sectarianism", and that following the Good Friday Agreement, "our children were promised the right to live free from sectarian harassment".

"Fundamentally, the Orange Order is a sectarian organisation," he said, "People power is going to prevail. There was no threat of violence from the residents of Garvaghy Road, but equally, there was no tolerance on the Garvaghy Road for sectarianism. Sectarianism has no place in our society."

Desmond Trainor, resident of the Garvaghy Road, said he is "concerned for his community and how it (the current situation) is affecting them".

"There has been great community cohesion," he said, "and it's great to see people coming out to support this community."

Speaking about being back on the road twenty-eight years later after the last dispute, Mr Trainor said that people of the Garvaghy Road are the "Spartans of their day".

"No more marches. Never again," he said.

The spokesperson for the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, Breandán Mac Cionnaith, met with the Secretary of State Chris Bryant MP on Monday afternoon, with Mr Mac Cionnaith telling reporters that here's no consent for an orange march through the community, and that any mediator would have to be someone from outside the UK and Ireland with international experience.