Belfast Court of Appeal hears residents challenge over Drumcree parade

Six Counties / 4 October 2026 Sinn Fein vows to cooperate with any Drumcree Parade police investigation 4 October 2026 East Africa / 4 October 2026 Ethiopian federal forces retake Mekelle airport from Tigrayan fighters 4 October 2026 South Asia / 4 October 2026 India and Pakistan summon diplomats after two killed in border incident 4 October 2026 Eastern Europe / 4 October 2026 Medvedev spells out Russia’s conditions for peace with Ukraine 4 October 2026 East Africa / 4 October 2026 Somalia's president says his country will not accept Israeli presence ‘under any circumstance’ 4 October 2026 Round-up / 4 October 2026 World in brief: October 4, 2026 4 October 2026 THE standoff surrounding the attempt by the Portadown District Orange Lodge to parade down the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road returned to the courts today after residents launched a new appeal to ban the march.

In an application to the Belfast Court of Appeal in Belfast the residents argued that the Parades Commission, which gave the green light to the march, had “materially misdirected itself” on the police assessment of the potential for disorder around the event and that the body had not given an “accurate representation of the evidence” received from the Police Service of Northern Ireland in its decision.

Denise Kiley KC, representing the Garvaghy Road residents, described the Drumcree parade as “one of the most polarising parades in the history of Northern Ireland.”

She said that the Parades Commission had a duty to promote an understanding of parading and it had failed to explain why it had reached its determination to permit the parade, particularly “where a decision has consistently been made on one basis for 28 years then a change cries out for explanation.”

Ms Kiley accused the Parades Commission of failing to “properly weigh” what the police had told it about the potential for disorder if the parade was given the go ahead.

She said that the commission’s assertion that there was no specific information from police about a risk of violence did not fully reflect what a senior commander had told it.

Ms Kiley said that Police Service of Northern Ireland Assistant Chief Constable Ryan Henderson told the commission while police had no clear intelligence about any planned disorder he had also stressed that officers were dealing with an “unclear picture” and that, as a result, police were planning for various scenarios — from a peaceful passing of the parade to an outbreak of violent disorder.

Ms Kiley added the commission’s subsequent conclusion that there was no specific information about the prospect of disorder was “only part of the picture.”

Tony McGleenan KC, representing the Parades Commission, said the residents were attempting to “make some forensic play” in asserting a difference between what the police told the commission and what the commissioners then recorded as the police assessment.

He said “one accurately reflects the other.”

Mr McGleenan said the residents’ contention that the commission had made a legal error “doesn’t bear scrutiny,” and described the ruling of the commission as an “expert judgement by the body set up by Parliament to make these evaluations.”