Northern Irish court temporarily stops Orange Order march through Catholic area

Northern Ireland's High Court granted a temporary injunction on Saturday stopping a Protestant parade from passing through a ‌Catholic area on Sunday, following a challenge by residents to the overturning of an almost 30-year ban on the route. Northern Ireland's Parades Commission — set up to regulate marches during the province's sectarian conflict — on Friday permitted the Orange Order to march along the ‌Garvaghy Road, a Catholic enclave in the largely Protestant town of Portadown, during their annual Drumcree parade on Sunday.

But ‌Judge Patricia Smyth granted the injunction on Saturday to offer a short period of interim relief until a judicial review on the commission's decision is determined. A lawyer representing a member of the Orange Order in the proceedings said he would appeal the decision to the Northern Irish Court of ⁠Appeal on ​Saturday night.

The original dispute ⁠over the route became one of the defining flashpoints of the conflict in Northern Ireland. Annual attempts by the Protestant Orange Order to march through the ⁠area triggered unrest across the British-run region before the route was banned in 1998, the same year the Good Friday Agreement largely ​ended the three decades of violence known as the "Troubles".

Smyth had urged lawyers for residents and the Orange Order during ⁠the six-hour hearing on Saturday to "be big enough to step back from the abyss" and find a creative way forward "on behalf of the people of ⁠Northern ​Ireland." In a letter presented to the court, the Orange Order said it could not agree as the court would not be able to guarantee a postponed parade would go ahead at another date even if the residents' judicial ⁠review failed.

The Parades Commission's determination on Friday stipulated that a smaller-than-usual 35 people could take part in the march, that it ⁠should begin by 8 ⁠a.m. local time and finish by 9:30 a.m., and that no supporters or bands would be allowed. The commission had initially maintained its ban, but that decision was quashed by the ‌High Court in ‌August over a procedural error.