Legal challenge to Drumcree Orange Order parade halt adjourned until Monday

A legal challenge against the decision to halt the Drumcree Orange Order parade has been adjourned until Monday. The challenge followed a decision by Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant to ban the contentious march route after an almost two-week standoff.

The ban prompted a statement from DUP leader Gavin Robinson, who said the anger of both the Chief Constable and the Secretary of State was totally justifiable. He said people everywhere expect the rule of law to be upheld and justice to be done. He called it inexplicable that the rights of Portadown District were trumped by obstruction of the road alone, and said he did not believe that alone to be the case. The only way to explain the decisions, he said, was to understand the actual threat presented. If there was a real threat to life, he said the public deserved to know and to see in clear terms what violence was planned, where the threat came from and what it entailed.

Sinn Féin President Mary Lou McDonald said Robinson's response would do nothing to help matters. She said she was frankly gobsmacked and alarmed that anyone with a sense of stability, respect for the law, respect for people's safety, peace of mind and dignity could advance the case for the march to go ahead. She said it was bad news from the get-go, that she was very relieved the Secretary of State had finally intervened, and that he had exercised statutory powers because he knew there could not and would not be an Orange march along the Garvaghy Road. She added that they had come too far and that peace was too precious.

In analysis, the decision was described as a big call for Sir Chris Bryant, who is not long in the job, and for the British Government, which has taken a side. The stated argument was that the Chief Constable of the PSNI could not guarantee safety and that if the march went ahead there was a realistic prospect of violent disorder and a threat to life. The DUP wants more detail from the PSNI and the Secretary of State about the threat and the decision-making behind the ban. There has also been criticism of the Parades Commission, which was seen by some as opening the door to a first march down the Garvaghy Road in many years.

The coverage noted that it has been 28 years since Orangemen completed their march down the Garvaghy Road. The dispute was framed as a throwback to a difficult era and a reminder that peace in Northern Ireland is fragile. The discussion pointed to other pressures, including Brexit and recent comments by Donald Trump about a united Ireland. The parade has sparked public disorder and violence over the years, and the question now is how the British Government works with Sinn Féin and the DUP in a fair-minded way to resolve the issue.