Orange Order march delayed as protesters block road after late-night hearing

The march was given the go-ahead at a hearing which concluded at 2.15am on Sunday after opposing legal teams outlined their arguments over the controversial parade.

The hearing was one of three separate emergency legal cases heard before the courts in Belfast across Saturday and into early Sunday.

The final time-limited sitting, which began at 12.20am on Sunday, was heard before Justice Michael Humphreys.

During proceedings, he acknowledged the “unusual if not unprecedented circumstances as it is now 1.45am, with a parade scheduled to begin in just over six hours’ time”.

Outlining his decision, Justice Humphreys cited case law that as a public body the courts must respect the commission’s judgment and “their decisions will not be lightly interfered with”.

He said: “The picture painted here is of a public body which took evidence from the relevant sources, weighed up the key issues which were in play and arrived at a reasoned decision.

“The jurisdiction to impugn (a) public body’s decision on that basis is necessarily limited to cases where no reasonable decision could arrive at that outcome and in my view, in this case that threshold has not been met.”

He added: “This court cannot substitute its own view or anyone else’s view for that of the commission.”

Earlier, Northern Ireland’s most senior judge, Lady Chief Justice Siobhan Keegan, also described the situation as “unprecedented” as she presided over the second challenge.

Justices Keegan and Humphreys joined Lady Justice Denise McBride in the Court of Appeal which, in the late hours of Saturday, upheld an appeal by Portadown Orangeman Alan Hynes to allow the march to go ahead. That appeal was heard after a temporary injunction was issued in the first legal challenge on Saturday that would have prevented Sunday’s parade from happening as scheduled.

In that initial ruling, Justice Patricia Smyth blocked the Parades Commission’s decision, saying the “long-running dispute has the potential to escalate” across Northern Ireland.