Stormont’s first day back after the summer recess saw a stormy clash over Drumcree and the future of the Parades Commission, with unionist MLAs demanding commissioners’ resignations and nationalist representatives warning against “re‑opening old wounds”.
The special “Matter of the Day” debate was granted on “public confidence in the Parades Commission” in the wake of a High Court ruling that quashed the body’s latest determination on Portadown District LOL’s Drumcree parade as “clearly unlawful”, criticising “errors, shortcuts and sloppy procedures”.
TUV MLA Timothy Gaston opened the debate by claiming last month’s judgment had “exposed serious failings at the very heart of the Parades Commission”.
He told MLAs the court had heard that not all commissioners had even seen or approved the determination that went out in their name, and that incorrect information had been given to the court under oath.
“These failings go directly to the legality and integrity of the commission’s decision‑making process,” he said. “The obvious question is this: how many other cases have been handled in the same way?
“Principled unionists have no respect for, or any confidence left in, the Parades Commission, and it is about time that [the Secretary of State] gave the remaining commissioners their marching orders out the door with their P45s in hand.”
DUP MLA Jonathan Buckley said the verdict confirmed long‑held suspicions that the commission was set up “to ensure the status quo… to block any form of parade”.
He said the body had acted against its statutory obligation to facilitate mediation, pointing to a commissioner – since resigned – who had described mediation as a “non‑starter” and warned colleagues not to “open the door” to it.
“We have seen shoddy decision‑making, an attempt to obstruct mediation and a chair… who did not directly challenge the comments made,” he said. “How can any chair still sit in office on some £50,000 of taxpayers’ money when she and, indeed, some of the other commissioners would not even read the determination…? It is a complete farce.”
DUP MLA Diane Dodds, who sat through the court proceedings, branded August 25 “a day of shame for the Parades Commission” but “a day of vindication for Portadown District”.
She told the Assembly: “It revealed decision‑making by WhatsApp. At least two commissioners did not have the time or could not be bothered to read a pre‑cooked determination by the secretariat. Absolutely shameful.
“Another commissioner told everyone not to mention mediation because it would only give ‘them’ something to prod at. Absolutely shameful. The Parades Commission completely ignored its lawful duty to ensure that mediation took place.”
Arguing that for Portadown Orangemen “it is not finished”, she said they had not been allowed to complete their “lawful parade”: “All of the hyperbole that we have heard from the other side of the Chamber… is stoking up fear and tension in the Garvaghy Road community.”
DUP MLA Stephen Brett went further, describing the decision as “disgraceful” and accusing nationalist and Alliance parties of trying to create “no‑go areas” and having a “supremacist attitude”.
“This issue is not finished,” he concluded. “We are not going away, you know.”
TUV and DUP members again urged the Secretary of State to remove the current commissioners, despite his decision to launch – and limit – a judge‑led review while keeping them in post.
Sinn Féin’s John O’Dowd, whose Upper Bann constituency includes Portadown and the Garvaghy Road, said “28 years of peace is not a problem that requires a solution; it is progress that needs to be protected”.
He insisted the core issue was not procedure but an attempt to reopen a dispute that had scarred an entire community.
“We have people in this building and people outside this building who are determined to reopen an old wound, and for what purpose?” he asked.
“The Portadown Orangemen have gone home. They go home every Sunday. On the annual parade, they parade to their church service undisturbed through a nationalist area. They have their worship undisturbed, and they go home undisturbed.
“The unspoken accommodation… has worked for 28 years… and has allowed an atmosphere to be created whereby community relations in the Portadown area have improved almost daily. Yet, people are coming along and picking at it. They cannot cope with progress. They cannot cope with stability. They fear peace.”
Mr O’Dowd said the “scar runs deep” on the Garvaghy Road and read out the names of victims whose deaths were linked to the Drumcree crisis in the 1990s, including Elizabeth O’Neill, Robert Hamill and the Quinn brothers, Jason, Mark and Richard.
“What more do you want?” he asked of those pressing for a return parade. “Allow the accommodation to work… and allow people to get on with their lives.”
Alliance MLA Eóin Tennyson said many watching would wonder “whether they have woken up in 2026 or 1996”, describing Drumcree as “an utterly grim period in our history” that “ruptured community relations” and saw people denied service in shops “on the basis of their community background”.
While critical of the Parades Commission’s flawed handling of the latest Drumcree determination, he warned against “picking at a scab with a chainsaw”.
“That is not an excuse to seek to relive the past simply for the hell of it,” he said, pointing out that around 93% of parades now proceed without any conditions.
Mr Tennyson said it would be “far more powerful” for Portadown District to assert its right to march but voluntarily forgo doing so “in recognition and respect of the deep wounds that are yet to heal”.
Ulster Unionist MLA Diane Armstrong said gains on contentious parades over the last decade had been “hard won” and “none of us should take them for granted”.
Quoting the High Court’s criticism of “errors, shortcuts and sloppy procedures”, she argued that a body which can restrict fundamental rights “must” have sound processes.
While welcoming the judge‑led review ordered by the Secretary of State, she branded its current terms of reference “too narrow” and called for a wider examination of the commission’s culture, training and working practices, including a statutory right of appeal against determinations and the appointment of fresh commissioners.
“This is a moment for calm heads,” she said. “There is a lawful, orderly route through this.”
SDLP MLA Justin McNulty said questions about the commission’s handling of Drumcree must be addressed but warned that some were seizing on the case to “undermine the entire system” and drag politics back to “tribal warfare”.
He described Drumcree as a “real low point for community relations” and said it was “disturbing, sad and backward” to see it forced back onto the agenda.
“My heart goes out to the people of the Garvaghy Road, many of whom will be traumatised by the ugly Drumcree situation rearing its head again,” he said.
With health, housing and education under strain, Mr McNulty argued: “People are entitled to expect political parties to have some strategy and some vision… not ones who are more interested in harvesting old grievances and dragging us back to the divisions of the past.”
Quoting former SDLP Minister Bríd Rodgers’s call to “let sleeping dogs lie”, he added: “We have spent nearly 30 years moving away from the politics that produced Drumcree. Our responsibility is to keep moving forward, not to drag people back.”
Independent MLA Claire Sugden said around 4,000 processions are notified each year and fewer than 5% are deemed sensitive, showing “much of the work of the Parades Commission happens successfully, routinely and without controversy”.
Precisely for that reason, she said, the McAlinden judgment was “particularly serious” and had damaged confidence.
“Billy Gamble has, rightly, resigned, and I believe that the remaining commissioners should do the same,” she told MLAs. “Sometimes, public service requires people to take responsibility, precisely because the institution is more important than the individuals.”
Ms Sugden said she struggled to understand why the Secretary of State had given the current commissioners his full backing and called instead for “a genuine, comprehensive review of what the Parades Commission should be in 2026” – one that looks beyond Drumcree and questions whether a framework designed almost 30 years ago remains appropriate.
People Before Profit MLA Gerry Carroll, meanwhile, accused unionist parties of “reaching into the past” to stoke division when they had “nothing positive or progressive to offer”, and described the Orange Order as a political organisation whose brand of “hardcore loyalism” brought “division and hatred” in the late 1990s.
He insisted residents on the Garvaghy Road were “entitled to challenge any Orange Order march” and to protest if they wished.
What happens next?
The Secretary of State has already announced a judge‑led review into the Parades Commission’s handling of the Drumcree determination. One commissioner has resigned; others remain in post for now, despite repeated calls in the Assembly for a complete clear‑out.
Portadown District LOL has lodged a fresh, scaled‑down application to walk down the Garvaghy Road with 60 members as part of its Drumcree church parade and says it is willing to enter mediation “without preconditions”. Residents’ representatives and nationalist politicians maintain there is no local appetite for the return of parades on the road.
The Parades Commission is expected to rule on any new application within four days of the proposed parade.
