Historic Vindication After 28 Years
The Independent Loyal Orange Institution (ILOI) today welcomes the landmark High Court judgement quashing the Parades Commission’s determination banning Portadown District LOL No 1 from making its traditional return parade from Drumcree Church along the Garvaghy Road. This ruling represents a seismic victory for the rule of law, for Protestant rights, and for the Portadown brethren who have stood firm in defence of their heritage since 1998.
The ILOI stated our support for Portadown unequivocally in 1998: “We’re with you all the way.” Read the headline in the Belfast News Letter, today we reaffirm that commitment with renewed strength and solidarity.
A Ban Quashed: Justice Served
A ban on Portadown Orangemen making their return parade from a church service at Drumcree has been quashed, after a landmark legal victory against the Parades Commission. A fresh application will now be submitted for the walk down the Garvaghy Road, after the previous decision by the quango was ruled unlawful.
Mr Justice McAlinden, in the High Court in Belfast, found the Commission’s determination to be “clearly unlawful” and ordered the body to pay the full costs of the proceedings. The judge declared that “public administration must have the confidence of the public” and condemned the “sloppy procedures” and “shortcuts” taken by the Commission.
Unwavering Support Since 1998
From the very beginning of this struggle, the Independent Loyal Orange Institution has stood shoulder to shoulder with Portadown District. In our statement of Friday, 3 July 1998, we declared:
“PORTADOWN Independent Orange lodge has issued a statement supporting Portadown District LOL No 1 in its stand over the Drumcree parade and has called on Garvaghy Road nationalists and republicans ‘to demonstrate they respect Protestant rights and traditions’. In their statement, the Independent LOL No 51 congratulated Portadown District on ‘its firm stand’ over the right to walk its traditional return route onSunday. ‘We feel very strongly that Portadown Orangemen should be allowed to walk peacefully along a route established in 1807, long before houses were built along what is now called Garvaghy Road.’”
That route—established in 1807, long before the Garvaghy Road existed as a nationalist enclave—remains the lawful, historical, and peaceful right of Orangemen. For 28 years, the Portadown brethren have been denied this right by a body that has consistently placed political expediency above the law. Throughout these decades we have been consistent in our criticism of the Parades Commission and have now been proven correct in our assessment that they are unfit for purpose and broken beyond repair.
Condemnation of the Parades Commission
The Independent Loyal Orange Institution has always rejected the Parades Commission as an anti-Protestant, anti-parades quango. Today’s judgement confirms what we have said since its inception: the Commission operates outside the bounds of lawful, fair, and impartial public administration. The Commission conceded in court that not all members had signed off on the Drumcree decision before it was issued in their names—a procedural blunder that underscores the institution’s systemic failure. Yet this is not merely a matter of process; it is a matter of principle. For nearly three decades, the Commission has imposed restrictions aimed at preventing disorder without any substantiated evidence of potential disturbances, while placing negotiations as a “pre-requisite to a parade” in violation of its own regulations. It must always be remembered that it was Sinn Fein/IRA and their allies which created the parades crisis and threatened the violence that was used as a pretext to restrict the right to parade.
We condemn the Parades Commission for its relentless erosion of Protestant rights, its dismissal of lawful tradition, and its failure to weigh the rights of Orangemen “in the same measure as everyone else’s,” as Lord Tom Elliott rightly observed today.
Solidarity with the Portadown Brethren
To the men and women of Portadown District LOL No 1: you have endured intimidation, vilification, and denial of your rights with dignity, courage, and unwavering faith. The Independent Loyal Orange Institution stands with you today as we have stood since 1998. Your victory is our victory. Your cause is our cause.
We call upon the Garvaghy Road residents and the wider nationalist community to demonstrate respect for Protestant rights and traditions, as we urged in 1998. Peaceful parading is a cornerstone of our heritage, and it must be protected for future generations.
Looking Forward
A fresh application for the parade along the Garvaghy Road will be submitted in the near future. The Independent Loyal Orange Institution will continue to support Portadown District in every lawful means necessary to secure the right to walk their traditional route.
We welcome the Secretary of State’s summons of the Parades Commission chair in the wake of this ruling and echo the calls from the DUP and the Orange Order for accountability. We would expect the resignation of the present Commission or action by the Secretary of State to remove them. However in the changed legal and other circumstances the Parades Commission itself must be abolished.
