NORTHERN IRELAND FIRST Minister Michelle O’Neill has confirmed that she has received a letter from the PSNI inviting her to a police interview over her attendance at a protest on Garvaghy Road amid the ongoing Drumcree parade dispute. 

It comes after members of Sinn Féin and People Before Profit in the North also received letters from the PSNI, who confirmed on Thursday that they had begun sending them to those suspected of committing criminal offences at the protest on 27 September. 

It relates to alleged breaches of a Parades Commission decision to allow an Orange Order parade to complete its traditional route from Drumcree Church down the largely nationalist Garvaghy Road for the first time for almost 30 years.

The march has been blocked by local residents who say its goal is to intimidate them and dredge up memories of the Troubles. 

Lawyers for the residents have sought to appeal the decision to let the march, which has been passing along a different route for decades, go ahead. The Court of Appeal has reserved judgment in the matter.

In a statement this afternoon, the Sinn Féin vice-president said: “I can confirm I have received a letter inviting me for a police interview in relation to a peaceful protest on the Garvaghy Road. I will co-operate with the investigation.

“For the last two weeks, I have stood in solidarity with the Garvaghy Road residents as attempts were made to force an unwanted Orange march through their community.

I will continue to stand with the Garvaghy Road residents who should be allowed to live in peace and free from sectarian intimidation.

“Because it is always right to stand up for what is right. And there can be no going back.”

Unionists have criticised O’Neill and other Sinn Féin ministers for having been in the area of the Garvaghy Road during the protest.

O’Neill, who will appear on RTÉ’s Late Late Show tonight, is facing a motion of no confidence when the Northern Ireland Assembly sits on Monday.

A number of senior Sinn Féin figures visited Garvaghy Road again today, including O’Neill and party president Mary Lou McDonald. 

They were accompanied by party colleagues Conor Murphy, John O’Dowd and Gerry Kelly, who confirmed that they had received correspondence from the PSNI. 

Speaking before she received her own letter, O’Neill said she fully expected to receive one and would engage with the police. She said Sinn Féin were “very comfortable with the decision to stand with the residents of the Garvaghy Road”. 

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“This is the difference between right and wrong,” she said.

Mary Lou McDonald said she had yet to receive a letter. 

“Of course there will be legal processes, investigative processes that will be underway, and just like every other citizen, of course, we are subject to the law and we will co-operate fully,” she said. 

McDonald pointed out the impasse had been ongoing for 13 days and repeated her calls for Northern Ireland Secretary of State Chris Bryant to take action to bring the crisis to an end.

“It has been our expectation, it was our wish from the get-go that the Secretary of State will intervene, and we’re calling on him again to do exactly that,” McDonald said, adding that no further time should be wasted. 

“It needs to be clear that this Orange march is now definitively off the table, so that this community can breathe easy again and return to their normal lives. The very idea of leaving a vacuum like this is irresponsible, to say the least of it.