{"id":1169033,"date":"2026-08-25T19:26:24","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:26:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1169033\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T19:26:24","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T19:26:24","slug":"parades-commission-has-learned-lessons-as-secretary-of-state-summons-chair-in-wake-of-drumcree-ruling-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1169033\/","title":{"rendered":"Parades Commission has \u2018learned lessons\u2019 as Secretary of State summons chair in wake of Drumcree ruling \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Parades Commission<\/a> has been forced to overhaul its procedures after its decision barring the Orange Order from returning along the Garvaghy Road was quashed in the High Court over a procedural blunder.<\/p>\n

However, the Commission has not said what has changed, or whether any of its members will stand down in the face of unionist calls for them to quit.<\/p>\n

Secretary of State Chris Bryant<\/a> is set to meet the Commission\u2019s chair \u201cas a priority\u201d, the Northern Ireland Office said, after Mr Bryant warned in a social media post on Tuesday that the body \u201csimply can\u2019t function\u201d without the respect of all communities in Northern Ireland.<\/p>\n

It follows demands from the DUP and the Orange Order for all six current members to quit, after Mr Justice McAlinden quashed the determination barring Orangemen from returning along the Garvaghy Road.<\/p>\n

\"Sinn<\/a>\"Decision<\/a><\/p>\n

The Secretary of State is responsible for appointments to the Parades Commission.<\/p>\n

The Commission conceded in court that not all members had signed off on the Drumcree decision before it was issued in their names.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Irish News, the Commission said it welcomed the conclusion of the judicial review proceedings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission did not contest the proceedings due to identified procedural issues with this specific decision. These concerned the internal processes for ensuring that each Commissioner had approved the final text of the Commission\u2019s determination,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision to impose conditions on the parade was taken unanimously at a meeting on 24 June 2026, at which all Commissioners were present, after careful consideration of a wide range of information available to the Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis included the results of a detailed programme of outreach conducted in January and April 2026, as well as reports from the PSNI, elected representatives and other stakeholders.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Commission said it had \u201calready implemented procedural changes to address the issue identified in the proceedings\u201d and would continue, \u201cas a learning organisation, to ensure that its processes are lawful and appropriate\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission will continue to discharge its statutory functions and also learn the lessons required from this case,\u201d it added.<\/p>\n

On the resignation calls, the Commission said only that \u201cappointments to the Commission are a matter for the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Commission also flatly rejected claims by Upper Bann MP Carla Lockhart that it engages in \u201cdecision making via Whatsapp\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Commission has never made decisions by Whatsapp,\u201d it said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe decision in this case was discussed and reached unanimously by all Commissioners in a meeting. Whatsapp is occasionally used to inform Commissioners that the final text of a decision needs to be reviewed by them.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the Commission did not address questions about a WhatsApp group in which Commissioners were allegedly urged to weigh the views of an anonymous online account.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Northern Ireland Office said: \u201cThe Parades Commission is independent of government.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhilst taking time to carefully consider the High Court ruling, the Secretary of State will meet the Chair as a priority, to assess the actions needed to strengthen its procedures and ensure there is public confidence in the Commission.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Parades Commission has a challenging role regarding parades in Northern Ireland. It is vital that the public has confidence in its decision-making process.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Parades Commission has been forced to overhaul its procedures after its decision barring the Orange Order from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1169034,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5011],"tags":[39794,6408,1144,6413,66984,285,73832,16,15],"class_list":["post-1169033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-northern-ireland","tag-chris-bryant","tag-dup","tag-northern-ireland","tag-orange-order","tag-parades-commission","tag-politics","tag-portadown","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117157797691121642","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1169033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1169033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1169034"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1169033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1169033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1169033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}