{"id":658950,"date":"2026-08-27T08:55:26","date_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:55:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/658950\/"},"modified":"2026-08-27T08:55:26","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T08:55:26","slug":"norths-high-court-quashes-parades-commission-drumcree-determination-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/658950\/","title":{"rendered":"North\u2019s High Court quashes Parades Commission Drumcree determination \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

A decision by the Parades Commission<\/a> in Northern Ireland<\/a> to impose restrictions on the annual Orange Order parade at Drumcree in Portadown has been quashed by the High Court<\/a> in Belfast.<\/p>\n

The court was told that the determination had not been considered in its \u201cfinal form\u201d by all members of the commission.<\/p>\n

Following criticism of the Parades Commission by unionist politicians, Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant<\/a> said the commission \u201csimply can\u2019t function\u201d if it does not have the respect of all communities in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

The legal challenge, launched last month, was brought by a Portadown Orangeman.<\/p>\n

The Parades Commission, which adjudicates on contentious marches, has blocked the Orange Order from marching along Garvaghy Road in Portadown in July every year since 1998.<\/p>\n

In court on Tuesday, John Larkin, representing the applicant, said there was consent on behalf of the commission to the quashing of the determination before a full hearing in the judicial review application.<\/p>\n

Larkin said the agreed determination of the commission had been sent out to commissioners \u201cessentially for information purposes\u201d.<\/p>\n

The barrister referred to internal WhatsApp messages from the commission about the determination, which he said were \u201cfor information purposes only\u201d.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWe say that is a scandalous abdication of responsibility in these circumstances.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representing the Parades Commission, Tony McGleenan said: \u201cThe concession was made last week in respect of the procedural point with the determination not having been considered in its final form by all commissioners.\u201d<\/p>\n

High Court judge Mr Justice McAlinden said he had \u201cno hesitation\u201d in making a ruling to quash this year\u2019s determination.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is simply a case which does not stand up to any scrutiny at all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Referring to an application for costs for the hearings, the judge said: \u201cPublic administration must have the confidence of the public and that means that when errors are made, when shortcuts are taken, when sloppy procedures are manifest, those issues come to the public knowledge and appropriate corrections are made within that administrative body to ensure that such behaviour does not occur again.\u201d<\/p>\n

The judge ordered the Parades Commission to pay costs.<\/p>\n

The hearing was attended by a number of unionist elected representatives including DUP Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart and TUV leader Jim Allister.<\/p>\n

Any future parade along the road would require a new application to the Parades Commission.<\/p>\n

In 1998 and previous years, there was widespread disorder because of tensions around the march along Garvaghy Road.<\/p>\n

Speaking in Derry, Bryant said: \u201cIt is really important that the Parades Commission carries the respect of all communities in Northern Ireland, otherwise it simply can\u2019t function.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is my job to make sure that the Parades Commission does that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lockhart described the court ruling as \u201cabsolutely seismic\u201d. She called on members of the Parades Commission to resign.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0Strong ties with Dublin \u2018essential\u2019 to future of Andy Burnham\u2019s government \u2013 NI SecretaryOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

She said: \u201cIf they do not, there is a clear obligation on the secretary of state to remove them from office and I am writing to him today to ask this process is commenced immediately.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allister also called on the commissioners to resign.<\/p>\n

DUP leader Gavin Robinson said: \u201cThe outcome of the Drumcree legal challenge is a totemic victory which has laid bare why confidence in the Parades Commission has collapsed within the unionist community.\u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Orange Order accused the Parades Commission of using a \u201ccopy and paste\u201d response when refusing annual applications to march at Drumcree.<\/p>\n

The spokesperson said: \u201cThe commission\u2019s failure to recognise the willingness of Portadown District to enter into dialogue with the residents of the Garvaghy Road, and the latter\u2019s abject refusal to do so, has for too long been used as a convenient get-out for the commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Grand Orange Lodge of Ireland welcomes today\u2019s legal victory which makes the position of the current commissioners untenable.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe further call on the secretary of state to instigate a long overdue, comprehensive examination of the commission\u2019s internal decision-making processes which, since its inception, have often lacked credibility, accountability and transparency.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A decision by the Parades Commission in Northern Ireland to impose restrictions on the annual Orange Order parade…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":658951,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[41],"tags":[10613,663,9,10,13,14,6,11,12,15,16,5,954,26870,189567,7,8,65,66,67],"class_list":["post-658950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-world","tag-armagh","tag-belfast","tag-breaking-news","tag-breakingnews","tag-featured-news","tag-featurednews","tag-headlines","tag-latest-news","tag-latestnews","tag-main-news","tag-mainnews","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-orange-order","tag-parades-commission","tag-top-stories","tag-topstories","tag-world","tag-world-news","tag-worldnews"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/117166638623584305","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=658950"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/658950\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/658951"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=658950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=658950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=658950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}