A legal challenge to the decision by the Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant to ban the Drumcree Orange Order parade in Portadown has failed.
In a lengthy judgment delivered at the High Court in Belfast on Wednesday morning, leave for a judicial review of Bryant’s decision, and of the action of PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher, was refused on the majority of the grounds put forward by the applicant, who is a member of the Orange Order in Portadown.
In the handful of grounds where leave to apply for a judicial review was granted, the High Court judges refused the substantive application, and the applicant’s claim was dismissed.
Judge David Scoffield said Bryant’s decision was “lawful” and “within the margin of discretion properly afforded to him” though it was “highly regrettable it was required in the circumstances in which it arose”.
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A legal representative for the applicant said it was “likely” the decision would be appealed.
In his concluding remarks, the High Court judge said those who opposed the Parades Commission’s determination should “take no particular joy” in the outcome of the case.
Bryant’s decision was “lawful” but the current position had been brought about “at very significant cost” to the people of Northern Ireland – “financially, through the diversion of police resources, and in terms of community relations”.
“Depressingly, the threat of serious and widespread disorder has loomed large in the matters under consideration,” he said.
He said those opposed to the parade “may well point to the lodge’s decision to process along a route where they knew they were neither welcome nor wanted” and “there may be some force in that point”, noting that “the existence of a right does not require its exercise”.
But the judge said that in this case the lodge’s legal right to process along the notified route on the Garvaghy Road “had been established, subject to conditions” and as a result of subsequent events, “significant concerns have now been expressed about respect for the rule of law in this jurisdiction”.
“That includes amongst some elected representatives by reason of their participation in the unnotified protest,” he said.
[ Chris Bryant had ‘no other decision’ but to halt Drumcree march, court toldOpens in new window ]
Several Sinn Féin politicians, including party leader Mary Lou McDonald and First Minister Michelle O’Neill, have been interviewed by police about their involvement in the protests that blocked the parade from proceeding along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road.
The Garvaghy Road residents are “fully vindicated” after a High Court judge found the Northern Ireland Secretary of state’s decision to ban the Drumcree parade was lawful, a spokesman has said.
Breandán Mac Cionnaith told reporters outside the High Court in Belfast: “The position we took in relation to this Orange march was fully justified. All we sought was the right that was promised under the Good Friday Agreement, the right to live free from sectarian harassment. That right has been vindicated and upheld today.”
Speaking to reporters outside the High Court, loyalist activist and legal adviser to the Orange Order in Portadown, Jamie Bryson, said the lodge had established in court “a legal right to walk the Garvaghy Road” and “the Portadown District will walk the Garvaghy Road”.
In Dublin, Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the priority should now be to strengthen relationships within the affected community.
Martin said the parade along the disputed road was unnecessary and called for a broader discussion about community relations and support for local residents.
“The most important thing now is to try and develop and build stronger community relations in the area,” he said.
Sinn Féin justice spokesman Matt Carthy welcomed the decision, saying it would be a “huge relief” to residents, who he said had been living with the threat of being “dragged back to the past”.
He said there was no need for “sectarian, unwanted marches to be forced through any community”, and called on the Orange Order to withdraw any further legal challenges and to accept the decision and work on building relationships with their neighbours.
The Parades Commission granted permission earlier this year for the parade to march on Garvaghy Road for the first time in almost 30 years.
The move sparked large crowds to gather on the road in opposition to the parade returning to the former flashpoint that sparked serious disorder and violence in the 1990s.
Police assessed that officers were unable to safely escort the parade along the Garvaghy Road while the crowds remained.
Orange men stayed on Drumcree Hill and made several attempts to complete the parade by approaching the police line and making their case for almost two weeks.
Bryant banned the parade on October 9th after hosting talks with the two sides and being unable to find an agreed resolution.
In the latest in a series of legal challenges connected to the dispute, a judicial review was sought by a member of the institution in to the intervention by Bryant, as well as the role of Boutcher, who requested the Northern Secretary to review the commission’s determination.
Last week, Belfast High Court heard a challenge to the “legality of the decision-making route” to ban the parade.
[ More than 50% of people in NI back move to ban Orange Order parade at DrumcreeOpens in new window ]
However, counsel for Bryant countered he could have taken “no other decision” than to halt the march.
