{"id":660490,"date":"2026-10-20T15:56:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-20T15:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/660490\/"},"modified":"2026-10-20T15:56:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-20T15:56:15","slug":"chris-bryant-had-no-other-decision-but-to-halt-drumcree-march-court-told-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/660490\/","title":{"rendered":"Chris Bryant had \u2018no other decision\u2019 but to halt Drumcree march, court told \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

Northern Ireland<\/a> Secretary Chris Bryant<\/a> could have taken \u201cno other decision\u201d than to halt the Drumcree<\/a> march in Portadown, Co Armagh, the High Court in Belfast has heard.<\/p>\n

Legal representatives of the PSNI<\/a> also pushed back against assertions that police were substantively considering the \u201cfeelings of the PIRA [Provisional IRA<\/a>]\u201d in security assessments relating to the parade\u2019s ability to proceed.<\/p>\n

Members of the Orange Order<\/a> are seeking a judicial review after Bryant halted the march from going along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road amid large-scale protests by residents opposed to the procession. His decision on October 9th followed a two-week stand-off.<\/p>\n

The application for judicial review against that decision is being heard by Judge David Scoffield.<\/p>\n

It includes a challenge to the decision by PSNI Chief Constable Jon Boutcher<\/a> to ask Bryant to review the determination made by the Parades Commission<\/a>, which had given the go-ahead for the parade.<\/p>\n

Barrister Phillip McAteer outlined discussions Bryant engaged in with party leaders over the course of the stand-off, as well as with members of the Portadown District of the Orange Order and the Garvaghy Road residents, which the barrister maintained were \u201can attempt to facilitate the procession and reach agreement\u201d.<\/p>\n

It was said in the course of those talks there was no resolution that was acceptable to the Orangemen that did not involve going down the Garvaghy Road, and none to the residents that involved the Orange Order doing so, leading the talks to end unsuccessfully.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0PSNI feared gun use by dissident republicans if parade went down Garvaghy Road, court toldOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

McAteer highlighted that the Secretary of State said at this stage that his door was still open and it was only when he received updated information of the security situation changing that he intervened.<\/p>\n

He outlined the Secretary of State\u2019s position by October 9th that the Parades Commission determination \u201ccould no longer be given effect, but it was properly reached on the basis of information before the commission at that time\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhich reflects something which was important to the Orange Order, which was the importance of the fact that their determination had been lawfully reached in the first place, a matter which has been confirmed by the court of appeal,\u201d McAteer said.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo that preserved that position, but also reflected the reality of the situation whereby the determination couldn\u2019t now be given effect.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"LegalLegal representative of Portadown District Orange Lodge 101 Jamie Bryson speaks to the media outside Belfast High Court today. Photograph: Liam McBurney\/Press Association <\/p>\n

Later, arguing the Secretary of State could not have amended the ruling to allow the march to proceed in a different form, McAteer said it was \u201crepeated over and over and over\u201d that the march for the Orange Order \u201cwas only about marching the Garvaghy Road\u201d, which the residents were \u201cblatantly opposed to\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo other decision by the Secretary of State would have achieved the aims, which was to end that stand-off and therefore mitigate all of those risks and avoid public disorder, crime, and ensure an appropriate balancing of the convention rights,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

On Monday, Richard McConkey, who represents a member of the Orange Order, referred to a senior officer having access to nine intelligence risk assessments and said a police record from the officer included the phrase \u201cthe feelings of the PIRA\u201d.<\/p>\n

Barrister for the PSNI, Peter Coll, said there were \u201cinterests outside the confines of this court\u201d in relation to that line and highlighted there were \u201cother mechanisms\u201d to put concerns around it to the Chief Constable.<\/p>\n

[\u00a0DUP accuses Bryant of \u2018disgraceful appeasement\u2019 on Garvaghy Road marchOpens in new window<\/a>\u00a0]<\/p>\n

He said it had been suggested that \u201ca commander had been taking account of and working with the feelings of PIRA\u201d, when the log was a description of intelligence information.<\/p>\n

He said: \u201cWhat he\u2019s saying there is: \u2018I\u2019ve seen intelligence documents, I\u2019m mindful of their contents\u2019, and then he breaks down what the contents are, and the contents include, as he phrases it, \u2018the feelings of the PIRA\u2019, and he\u2019s simply stating that as a fact.\u201d<\/p>\n

Coll agreed with the judge\u2019s characterisation of the police position that it is \u201cunfair to read that as: \u2018We don\u2019t want to hurt the feelings of the PIRA\u2019\u201d.<\/p>\n

A judgment is to be given next week. \u2013 PA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Northern Ireland Secretary Chris Bryant could have taken \u201cno other decision\u201d than to halt the Drumcree march in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":660491,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[73902,270806,61,60,27238,140069,43,2443,18254,171620,21754],"class_list":["post-660490","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ireland","tag-chris-bryant","tag-drumcree","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-republican-army","tag-jon-boutcher","tag-news","tag-northern-ireland","tag-orange-order","tag-parades-commission","tag-police-service-of-northern-ireland-psni"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660490","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=660490"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/660490\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/660491"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=660490"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=660490"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=660490"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}