A Belfast court has dismissed an appeal by the Garvaghy Road residents against the Parades Commission’s decision to allow a controversial Orange march at Drumcree.
In the summary of the judgement delivered at the Court of Appeal on Monday afternoon, the Lady Chief Justice, Siobhan Keegan, said she was satisfied that a judge in a lower court was “correct” in his assessment and the residents’ application for leave to apply for a judicial review had “no reasonable prospect of success.”
She said the outcome of the appeal was “as a result of the application of the law” and she and her fellow judges “make no comments on the merits of the [Parades Commission] decision itself, as that is not our function.”
The appeal was dismissed, as was the application for leave to judicially review the decision.
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The residents were challenging an earlier High Court decision to refuse leave to apply for a judicial review of the determination by the Commission to permit the Orange Order to parade from Drumcree church along the Garvaghy Road on September 27th.
The court heard the judges made their decision before an intervention by the Northern Secretary on Friday night that banned the controversial Orange Order parade.
Speaking outside the court, loyalist activist Jamie Bryson described the Court of Appeal judgement as “seismic”, saying the “lawlessness and the law breakers have been defeated.
“The law is clear, the Portadown District has a legal right to walk the Garvaghy Road,” he said.
However Breandán Mac Cionnaith, of the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition, said the judgement was “fairly academic given that the Secretary of State has already banned the march in question.
“The ban is in place, that’s what we sought, we’ve prevented the march, and we’ll be back again to prevent future marches.”
Earlier on Monday, a separate challenge to Chris Bryant’s decision was adjourned at the High Court in Belfast.
During a brief hearing on Monday morning, the court was told that the case will proceed on October 19th.
The judge will consider whether to grant leave for a judicial review and, if permission is given, the merits of the case during the same session.
The court heard there had been an application on Sunday to widen the case to include Police Service of Northern Ireland chief constable Jon Boutcher as a respondent, and to challenge his request to the Northern Secretary to review the permission for the march to proceed.
The Portadown District of the Orange Order applied for leave to take a judicial review of Friday night’s decision by Chris Bryant to intervene and revoke permission for the parade.
It followed a two-week stand-off between members of the Portadown District of the Orange Order and nationalist residents on the Garvaghy Road.
The march on September 27th was blocked by residents and did not go ahead.
In a statement on Friday night, the Northern Secretary said he had been advised by the PSNI chief constable that the march could not proceed without a “major” police intervention, which “would carry an unacceptable risk of serious injury, disorder and a wider contagion effect across Northern Ireland” and he had therefore decided to ban the march “in the interests of wider public interest and safety”.
Meanwhile, a motion of no confidence in First Minister Michelle O’Neill was defeated in the Northern Ireland Assembly.
Similar non-binding motions against Sinn Féin Finance Minister John O’Dowd, Economy Minister Caoimhe Archibald and Infrastructure Minister Liz Kimmins also did not pass.
The votes were brought by unionist parties in the Stormont Assembly over their participation in protests in support of the Garvaghy Road residents.
O’Neill is among a number of MLAs who have received letters from the PSNI inviting them to a voluntary interview as part of the police investigation into the protests.
The motions contended they “no longer enjoy the confidence of the Assembly” after they allegedly “participated in the unlawful protest” and claim they “failed to observe their pledge of office”.
O’Neill has repeatedly defended her participation in the protests, saying last week that she would “continue to stand with the Garvaghy Road residents” because “it is always right to stand up for what is right and there can be no going back”.
The motions – which carry the sanction of excluding a Minister from holding office for 12 months – were not expected to pass, as this would require cross-community support in the Assembly.
At a press conference on Monday morning, Traditional Unionist Voice leader Jim Allister, called on Boutcher to resign, claiming the PSNI chief had “failed to uphold the rule of law”.
The DUP leader, Gavin Robinson, said the UK government had “bent the knee” to “threats of violence and disorder” and he would speak to the Northern Secretary to “ensure that there are sanctions and that there is accountability.”
O’Neill criticised the “very ugly” language used by some politicians, saying it was “dehumanising” but also “dangerous and actually can lead on to sectarianism and violence in our streets.”
Alliance MLA Eoin Tennyson described the motions of no confidence against Sinn Féin as a “wrecker’s agenda designed to destabilise and bring down these institutions and we will have no part in that.”
Additional reporting - PA.
