Drumcree residents appeal parade ruling as Bryant prepares further talks

Drumcree parade opponents in Portadown, Northern Ireland, have appealed a High Court dismissal of their challenge to permission for an Orange Order march along Garvaghy Road. Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant's separate talks with the two sides produced no breakthrough on Tuesday, 29 September, and further meetings were planned for Wednesday. A hearing on the residents' appeal is listed for Friday, 2 October.

The Garvaghy Road Residents’ Coalition says the Parades Commission misread police evidence about the risk of disorder. Its leader, Breandán Mac Cionnaith, told residents after meeting Bryant that mediation was ‘dead in the water’. That was the coalition's assessment of the prospect of an agreement; the planned talks had not been called off in the reports available on Wednesday morning.

What the Drumcree appeal challenges

Residents' lawyers lodged papers on Tuesday after a High Court judge dismissed their application to challenge the Parades Commission's decision. The appeal concerns that later dismissal. It follows a separate court sequence before Sunday's planned march: a temporary injunction would have stopped the parade, but a Court of Appeal panel overturned that order, finding that the judge had erred in law.

According to The Irish Times, the new application argues that the commission ‘materially misdirected itself’ on the police assessment of potential disorder and failed to give an accurate account of evidence received from the Police Service of Northern Ireland. These are arguments made by the applicants, not findings by the court. The coalition's barrister, Denise Kiley KC, also argued at a weekend hearing that material concerning the decision examined past disorder without assessing future risk, The Guardian reported.

What Tuesday's talks established

Bryant met the Orange Order and the residents' coalition separately at Hillsborough Castle on Tuesday, The Irish Times reported. The meetings ended without a breakthrough. Further talks were expected on Wednesday, but no outcome from those meetings was established in the available reports.

The two sides continued to describe sharply different goals. Portadown Orange Order district master Nigel Dawson said he looked forward to ‘the law being applied to the parade’. Mac Cionnaith told The Irish Times that residents' message was: ‘Reroute the sectarian parade.’ Speaking to The Guardian, he said the community wanted ‘no parade’ and cited nearly 4,000 local residents as the basis for that position.

Dawson described his meeting with Bryant as ‘constructive’, according to The Guardian. Mac Cionnaith's statement that mediation was ‘dead in the water’ came after his own meeting. Neither description amounts to an agreed route or a formal end to the secretary's efforts to bring the sides together.

Why Garvaghy Road remains blocked

The Parades Commission's decision allowed the Orange Order to seek a route down Garvaghy Road for the first time in almost 30 years, The Guardian reported. Garvaghy Road is a largely nationalist area of Portadown, and residents gathered on Sunday to prevent the march from passing. The Irish News reported that thousands blocked the route and that the standoff had entered its third day by Tuesday.

The permission had been subject to court proceedings before the march. The Irish Times reported that the court-authorised parade was limited to 35 Orange Order members. That figure describes the later permission reported in connection with the court decisions, rather than the number of marchers who completed the disputed route: protesters prevented the parade from going down Garvaghy Road.

The confrontation continued into Wednesday. The Guardian reported that Orange Order members left Drumcree church on Tuesday night and tried again to walk the route shortly after 10pm, accompanied by DUP MP Carla Lockhart. They returned to the church on Wednesday morning, saying they would remain until police allowed the march to proceed. Residents continued to watch the road, according to The Irish Times.

Political calls for a mediated route

The dispute has also drawn the Irish government into discussions. Sinn Féin leader Mary Lou McDonald called on Taoiseach Micheál Martin to press Bryant to intervene and ban the march, The Irish Times reported. Martin said a single intervention would not resolve the dispute and called for a collective path involving some degree of mediation. Foreign Affairs Minister Helen McEntee said she believed an international mediator was likely to be appointed; that was an expectation, not a confirmed appointment.

Northern Ireland First Minister Michelle O’Neill attended Sunday's protest and said she would continue to stand with Garvaghy Road residents. Unionists criticised her participation in what they described as an unnotified protest. The PSNI said it was reviewing evidence gathered at the protest, The Irish Times reported. No outcome of that review was established in the reporting available for this article.

The latest appeal and Tuesday's unsuccessful talks follow the earlier blockade, covered in NewsJaws' report on the Garvaghy Road protest. Friday's court hearing and any further talks may clarify the next steps; neither their outcome nor a timetable for ending the standoff has been established.