SNP SPEAK FOR SCOTLAND

Breandán Mac Cionnaith has just said to the waiting media that: "Men, women and children who live on the Garvaghy Road have been fully vindicated today".

BREAKING : HIGH COURT RULING DRUMCREE: ORANGE ORDER PARADE REMAINS BANNED ON GARVAGHY ROAD. @AllisonMorris1 @BelTel Justice Scoffield has just upheld the decision made by The Secretary of State to ban the parade by Portadown District Orange Lodge from marching down the Nationalist Garvaghy Road. He has therefore dismissed the case made by the Orange Order who had appealed against the decision. The judge was satisfied that the chief constable referring the matter to the Secretary of State had not overstepped, & that the political considerations were not the significant and substantial reason for the referral, but rather that the Chief Constable had ‘sound policing reasons’. He said that it was not "irrational" that the Secretary of State had made the decision that he did, and that he had been faced with a "complicated" situation. The Judge said that the Orange Order was "not interested in a route that did not include Garvaghy Road". He said that The Secretary of State had to take into account the convention rights of both the protestors and the Orange Order but also the wider public disruption that was being caused. He said that the decision by the Secretary of State was therefore lawful however he also recognised that another authority had previously determined that a march could lawfully proceed. #garvaghyroad #drumcree #highcourt