A High Court judge has ruled that the Parades Commission acted unlawfully in blocking Portadown District Orange Order from completing its traditional Drumcree church parade along the Garvaghy Road – a decision unionist representatives are hailing as “historic” and “seismic”.
The case, brought by Drumcree District Lodge earlier this summer, centred on the Commission’s latest determination preventing Orangemen from returning along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road after their annual church service at Drumcree.
That Garvaghy stretch has been prohibited since 1998, following years of bitter dispute and serious public disorder which turned the parade into one of Northern Ireland’s most volatile flashpoints.
At the High Court in Belfast on Tuesday (August 25), Mr Justice McAlinden found that the Commission’s determination in the most recent Drumcree case was “clearly unlawful” and has quashed it. He also ordered the Commission to pay the full costs of the proceedings.
Legal campaigner and loyalist activist Jamie Bryson – part of the applicant’s legal team with John Larkin KC and barrister Emma McIlveen BL – said the ruling marked “a seismic victory” and “the first time a victory over the Parades Commission” had been secured in court.
He claimed the case had exposed “false evidence given under oath, clear bias, hostility and predetermination on the part of the Commission”, as well as internal communications that, he said, showed an effort “to in bad faith deprive the Loyal Orders of any parade”.
In a detailed public statement, Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart – who attended the proceedings – said the outcome “has blown apart” the assumption that nothing at Drumcree could ever change.
“For 28 years Portadown District has been denied its traditional church parade route along the Garvaghy Road,” she said.
“For 28 years they have been told to accept it, to move on, that nothing would ever change at Drumcree. Today, that has been blown apart.
“The Parades Commission has conceded illegality in its decision-making. The evidence put forward in the legal challenge was so substantial that the judge determined a full court hearing was not even required and stated that had they not conceded he would have quashed their determination anyway as being ‘clearly unlawful’.
“He also ordered the Commission to pay the full costs of the legal proceedings. That is absolutely massive.”
Ms Lockhart said she had already written to the Prime Minister calling for the removal of the current Commissioners and an “independent review into the structure, governance and accountability of the Commission, with the complete abolition remaining a live outcome”.
She added that she had received a formal apology from the Chair of the Parades Commission, and that an apology had also been made to the court “for the false evidence given under oath about me”.
The DUP MP praised the Portadown District officers and members, saying: “For 28 years they have stood firm. They have sought mediation, reached out and pursued a peaceful resolution while maintaining their dignity and integrity throughout.
“People said Drumcree would never change. They were wrong. Today is a massive moment for Portadown District, for unionism and for loyalism. The next chapter of Drumcree is about to be written. There is no rational or legal basis for the continued prohibition of this traditional church parade.”
Drumcree and Portadown District Master Nigel Dawson told reporters the decision was a “historic and unprecedented victory for the Loyal Orders and unionist community”, and confirmed that a fresh application to march along the Garvaghy Road will be lodged “in the near future”.
The ruling has also intensified political pressure on the Parades Commission.
Ms Lockhart said: “The battleground is now Westminster. I have written to the Prime Minister to ask for the removal of the commissioners. They should do the right thing and resign but if they don’t we must have a full inquiry into the Parades Commission.
“There is absolutely no legal or rational basis for refusing the church parade home. As MP for the area I look forward to welcoming them home.”
Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister KC, who was also in court, said the Commission’s members should resign and called the judgment “a test of our new Secretary of State”.
“If they don’t write their own resignations, the Secretary of State needs to give them their own P45 and make this province all the better for it,” he said.
Mr Bryson argued that the decision has broader implications for what he described as a “two-tier system” in how parades and protests are treated.
“This Commission cannot survive,” he said. “The members – and their Secretary (who provided false evidence under oath) – should each do the right thing and resign before they have to be metaphorically dragged out of office. If they do not, then they should be removed by the Secretary of State.
“The Portadown District will now be proceeding with a fresh application, and the Commission will have to consider it within a proper legal framework. If that occurs, then there is only one outcome.
“We are only getting started. We are systematically going to go after every aspect of the two-tier system which operates on the basis ‘unionism must give, and nationalism must get’. No more.”
The Parades Commission, which is responsible for regulating contentious processions across Northern Ireland, has faced sustained criticism from sections of political unionism and loyalism since its establishment in the late 1990s.
