A Belfast appeals court upheld permission for a disputed Orange Order parade in Portadown, Northern Ireland, hours before it was due to begin. Judge Michael Humphreys said the court should respect the Parades Commission, the public body responsible for authorizing marches. The parade was scheduled for 8 a.m.
The commission had allowed marchers onto Garvaghy Road through Drumcree, a predominantly Catholic and nationalist area. It is the first permission for the route in nearly three decades; the commission had barred it since 1998.
Residents challenged the approval in the High Court. Judge Patricia Smyth issued an injunction stopping the parade over the potential for escalation. An Orange Order member successfully appealed, after which the residents’ group won permission to challenge that ruling again. Media reports said crowds gathered overnight and masked people blocked the road’s northern end toward Drumcree.
March disputes in the area were linked to serious violence during the Drumcree conflict in the 1990s. The Orange Order, a Protestant organization, was founded in Portadown in 1795. Source: dpa / Tagesspiegel.