Garvaghy Road parade ban upheld by Belfast court

A Belfast court on Wednesday dismissed a legal challenge to the UK government's ban on a contentious Protestant Orange Order parade through a mainly Catholic area of Northern Ireland.

High Court judge David Scoffield ruled that Northern Ireland minister Chris Bryant acted lawfully when he stopped the procession along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown on October 9.

The challenge was brought by a member of the pro-British Orange Order. The group also contested Northern Ireland police chief Jon Boutcher's request that Bryant reconsider approval granted by the Parades Commission, the independent body that adjudicates disputed processions in the region.

Scoffield said it was "highly regrettable" that Bryant's intervention had been required. He said the dispute had caused significant financial cost, diverted police resources and damaged community relations.

An Orange Order appeal is expected. Jamie Bryson, the group's legal representative, said after the ruling that the order's right to walk the Garvaghy Road had been "thwarted by unlawful conduct from that mob". Garvaghy Road residents' spokesperson Breandan Mac Cionnaith said residents had been "fully vindicated".

The latest dispute began after the Parades Commission authorised 35 Orangemen to march silently along the road on September 27, the first such approval along that route in 28 years. Thousands of local residents and supporters blocked the procession, triggering a nearly two-week standoff.

Police warned that clearing the route would require a major public-order intervention carrying an unacceptable risk of serious injury and wider disorder. The court heard that dissident republicans might have mounted gun attacks on police if officers had tried to clear the road.

The march last passed along Garvaghy Road in 1997 and was barred the following year, when the Good Friday Agreement largely ended three decades of conflict over British rule. Several thousand Orange Order members and more than two dozen bands marched peacefully through Portadown town centre on Saturday in support of the lodge, avoiding the disputed road.