First Minister Michelle O’Neill has warned that Portadown’s Garvaghy Road community does not want to see the tensions of the past return after the High Court quashed this year’s decision to restrict an Orange Order march at Drumcree.
Ms O’Neill made the comments during a visit to residents on the Garvaghy Road in Portadown on Wednesday, August 26, 2026, a day after the court ruling in Belfast. She accused unionist leaders of displaying “triumphalism” and said the reaction had caused anxiety in the community.
The case concerned the Parades Commission’s determination on the annual Orange Order parade. The commission has blocked the order from marching along the Garvaghy Road every July since 1998.
What the High Court ruling means
The legal challenge was launched last month by a Portadown Orangeman. At the High Court in Belfast on Tuesday, the 2026 determination was quashed after the court heard that it had not been considered in its “final form” by every member of the Parades Commission.
The Parades Commission, which adjudicates on contentious marches, said it had already “implemented procedural changes to address the issue identified in the proceedings”.
The ruling centred on how the decision was reached. It did not, according to the supplied report, itself mean that an Orange Order parade could proceed along the Garvaghy Road.
Speaking after meeting residents, Ms O’Neill described the community as confident and focused on the future, but said people were “very anxious” about what they had seen from unionist leaders after the judgment.
“This is a very confident community, a community that’s very much looking towards the future, and do not want the days of the past visited upon them once again.”
She said the display had been viewed as a victory over the community and questioned whether anyone wanted to revisit the period associated with the Drumcree dispute.
“But this is a community that’s also anxious, very anxious, by what they saw yesterday – a triumphalism that was expressed by the leaders of unionism standing shoulder to shoulder, claiming a victory over this community.”
Political reaction to the Parades Commission
Ms O’Neill, who is Sinn Féin vice president, said residents believed political unionist leaders were seeking to bring back “dark days”. She said the community wanted to keep moving forward rather than return to earlier confrontations over the parade route.
She also asked why unionist leaders wanted to return to what she described as the days of “tramping over the rights” of the Garvaghy Road community and questioned whether unionism was moving towards more extreme elements of society.
“None of us want to see this. We want to keep moving forward.”
Communities Minister Gordon Lyons said earlier on Wednesday that he would support the Orange Order making an application to march on the Garvaghy Road.
The DUP minister said there was “a huge amount of anger” within the unionist community over restrictions imposed on the annual parade. He said the unionist community had lost confidence in the Parades Commission and described the court revelations about its decision-making process as a governance concern.
“I think most people will be shocked, in fact outraged, at the way in which the commission made their decisions.”
Mr Lyons said decisions had been signed off by commissioners who had not read them and that business had been conducted through WhatsApp. He said confidence in the commission was very limited across Northern Ireland.
The Parades Commission’s stated procedural changes and any future application by the Orange Order will now be central to the next stage of the dispute. The supplied report does not state that a new application has been submitted or that a march has been authorised.