Orange Order challenge adjourned after Garvaghy Road parade ban

Latest position

Northern Ireland Secretary Sir Chris Bryant has used his legal powers to ban the disputed Orange Order parade on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown. The decision ends, for now, a standoff that lasted almost two weeks. It had deepened political divisions and led to a legal challenge by the Orange Order.

Background

Most residents of the Garvaghy Road are Irish nationalists and opposed the march. The Orange Order had been due to parade from Drumcree Church along the road two Sundays ago. The Parades Commission had allowed 35 Orangemen to march without music at 8am on Sunday 27 September. That was a reversal of a ban that had been in place for 28 years. Hundreds of demonstrators blocked the road and the march did not go ahead. Police could not clear the route. Sinn Féin leaders, including First Minister Michelle O'Neill and party president Mary Lou McDonald, joined the protests.

Decision

Bryant said he had not taken the decision lightly. He said the chief constable of the PSNI, Jon Boutcher, had asked him to review the original determination. Boutcher advised that the parade could not proceed without a major intervention carrying an unacceptable risk of serious injury and disorder, or a wider contagion effect across Northern Ireland. Bryant said the circumstances under which the original decision was made had changed considerably. He said it was not in the public interest for the procession to proceed.

Reaction

Sinn Féin welcomed the ban. Michelle O'Neill said it was the right decision and should have been taken at the start. She said residents had lived with constant fear for 13 days. Taoiseach Micheál Martin said the decision would bring great relief to the Garvaghy Road and allow work on reconciliation. The DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, said the rule of law had been fundamentally undermined. He said the decision suggested Northern Ireland was run on force of numbers and asked the police chief to explain the threat that was presented. Mary Lou McDonald said she was shocked and alarmed by his remarks. She said the suggestion of an Orange march down the Garvaghy Road was provocative and reckless, and recalled loyalist violence in the 1990s in which 21 lives were lost, including three boys burnt to death in their home.

Legal and political fallout

The Orange Order is seeking urgent meetings and its lawyers returned to court to apply for judicial review. A High Court judge in Belfast adjourned an appeal until Monday. Police have contacted a number of people who took part in the protest, including Michelle O'Neill. She said the process will go as it goes and she will not stand in its way. In the 1990s the Drumcree dispute sparked some of the worst rioting in Northern Ireland's history. There has been no violence over the last two weeks, but the issue has stirred up questions of symbolism, territory and identity. There is no sign that the political fallout is easing.