Drumcree Church Credit: Raymond Okonski [CC BY-SA 2.0]

The Parades Commission issued a determination on Friday afternoon granting permission for Portadown District LOL No.1 to parade down the Garvaghy Road at 8am on Sunday morning. The parade was subject to conditions that; it would consist of no more than 35 persons, would display no flags or banners other than the banner of Portadown District LOL as it proceeds down the Garvaghy Road, be accompanied by no supporters and no bands would participate. It was to disperse from Carlton Street Orange Hall no later than 9.30am.

This determination was challenged by the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition who were initially granted an injunction by Judge Patricia Smyth on Saturday afternoon. That injunction was placed on the Orange Order’s notification of the parade as an injunction on the Parades Commission determination would have permitted the Order to proceed down the Garvaghy Road without being subject to conditions as the parade had been legally notified.

Judge Patricia Smyth stated that the “long running dispute has the potential to escalate” across Northern Ireland.

The injunction was appealed by Alan Hynes of Portadown District LOL No.1 who were successful before Lady Chief Justice Siobhan Keegan, Mr Justice Michael Humphreys and Lady Justice Denise McBride in the Court of Appeal who found Judge Smyth had “erred in law”.

The case was then remitted to the High Court where Mr Justice Humphreys held that as the Parades Commission is a public body the courts must respect its judgement and “their decisions will not be lightly interfered with”.

“The picture painted here is of a public body which took evidence from the relevant sources, weighed up the key issues which were in play and arrived at a reasoned decision.”

“The jurisdiction to impugn a public body’s decision on that basis is necessarily limited to cases where no reasonable decision could arrive at that outcome and in my view in this case that threshold has not been met.”

“This court cannot substitute its own view or anyone else’s view for that of the commission.”

John Larkin KC and Emma McIlveen BL acted for Alan Hynes, Denise Kiley KC for the Garvaghy Road residents, Tony McGleenan KC for the Parades Commission and Peter Coll KC for the PSNI.