Protesters disperse after blocking controversial Orange Order parade

The Orange Order, the most prominent of the loyal orders associated with Protestants in Northern Ireland, holds thousands of parades every year and the vast majority pass off without incident.

However, many Catholics see the marches as sectarian and object to them passing through, or close to, Catholic or nationalist areas.

The Garvaghy Road had been part of the Drumcree route, but by the mid 1990s nationalist residents protested against the parade.

When the Orange Order was prevented by police from walking down the route in July 1995, there was a tense stand-off. It was the same for the next three years.

Violence related to the dispute resulted in riots, roadblocks and murders across Northern Ireland.

In 1998, the newly-established Parades Commission ruled that the Orange Order should not march down the road – a decision upheld until Friday, when it said the march could go ahead along Garvaghy Road for the first time in 30 years.

Rather than start at 13:00 on Sunday as intended, the commission said it could begin no later than 08:00 – and with 35 participants rather than the 60 the Orange Order requested.

An initial legal challenge from the road’s Residents’ Coalition (GRRC) at the High Court saw a judge issue an injunction banning the parade – but this was later successfully challenged by an Orange Order member at the Court of Appeal.

Late on Saturday evening, the GRRC was given permission to challenge that decision at the High Court, an appeal which was dismissed by Justice Humphreys.

In a hearing concluding at 02:15 BST on Sunday morning, Justice Humphreys said: “This court cannot substitute its own view or anyone else’s view for that of the commission.”