Sinn Féin TDs interviewed by police over Garvaghy Road protest
Pearse Doherty and Matt Carthy attended a police station in Belfast for interview on Thursday afternoon.
Two Sinn Féin TDs stood by their participation in a protest on the Garvaghy Road as they became the latest party representatives to be interviewed by police about the allegedly unlawful gathering.
Pearse Doherty insisted standing with the community on the road was the “right thing to do” while Matt Carthy said he was “proud” of what he had done.
The protest on the road last month was part of efforts to prevent an Orange Order parade making its way down the predominantly nationalist thoroughfare.
Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald and vice president and Stormont First Minister Michelle O’Neill are among other senior party figures to have already been interviewed by officers at Musgrave Street police station in Belfast for participating in the protest.
Under parading laws in Northern Ireland, any protest against a parade that is not notified in advance to the Parades Commission adjudication body is deemed unlawful.
Arriving at the police station on Thursday, Mr Doherty said: “What is right is always the right thing to do.
“And the days of treating the nationalist communities as second-class citizens are over.
“Sinn Féin is determined that we will not be dragged backward by anybody.
“We believe that it is right to have taken this stand and supported the peace process, supported the progress that we have seen.
“We defend the progress that we have seen over the last number of years, and there is no going back.”
Mr Carthy said allowing the Orange Order parade down the Garvaghy Road was “not a tolerable prospect”.
“The peace that has been built on, very hard, very painstakingly over the past 30 years is something to be protected,” he said.
“There can be no going back, not now and not ever.
“So we are very proud of our role in standing alongside the community in the Garvaghy Road, we will ensure at every opportunity that the progress that we have seen, that has been built, that has been maintained, is protected.
“And we will be giving the message today and every day that there will be no going back, that we will not be dragged back to the past.
“Not today. Not this month. Not this year. Not ever.”