NI: The Right to March
01 September 1991
On International Women's Day, a group of women from West Belfast sought to march to Belfast city centre. They were stopped by the RUC because one of their banners was in Irish and "the fundamental principle on which RUC decisions are made in respect of parades is whether or not they are likely to affect peace and public tranquillity". Since then, the Right to March Group has had two other proposed city centre parades banned, on 21st April and 26th May.
Under article 3 of the Public Order (Northern Ireland) Order 1987, not less than seven days notice must be given by anyone organising a public parade, procession or demonstration. Only funerals are exempt, although these remain regulated under the Emergency Provisions Act. Anyone filing for a march must give precise details of time, route, numbers participating, stewarding arrangements and name and address of the organiser. The RUC has powers to ban marches, to re-route or confine them more or less as it thinks fit, except that RUC decisions on parades have recently been the subject of a number of cases of judicial review.
A resident of the 95% nationalist village of Pomeroy applied for a judicial review of the RUC's decision to allow 7,000 Orangemen to parade through the village on the 12th of July (the date on which Orangemen commemorate the Battle of the Boyne). The resident's lawyer argued that if the parade was not re-routed, then residents had only three choices facing them - to remain at home acting normally and thereby risking violence; imposing a curfew on themselves and staying indoors; or leaving the village altogether for the day. In any event, the Orangemen would cause considerable disruption to the ordinary life of the community, one of the grounds under the public order legislation for re- routing such a parade. The application was rejected and the parade allowed to proceed.
The Right to March Group applied for a judicial review to compel the RUC to make an early decision on their application to march from the Markets area to Belfast City Hall on July 28th.
The Markets is adjacent to the city centre and marchers would not pass through any residential areas. Before the High Court made its decision the RUC gave permission for the march to go ahead.
A similar legal battle surrounded the hunger strike/internment anniversary rally on 11th August, attended by more than 20,000 people. The RUC held off giving a decision on whether groups from the Markets and Short Strand could march across the city centre (deserted on a Sunday) to join the Falls Road rally. The Chief Constable was challenged in court to make an early decision on the application to march. At one stage the judge asked the Crown lawyer, "Is he (the Chief Constable) not being bloody minded in mucking up the arrangements the organisers have made for the march?" The RUC eventually allowed the Markets group to march but refused permission for the Short Strand group to parade over the Albert bridge - the only obstacle between this small nationalist enclave on the edge of east Belfast and the city centre.
Irish News 22.4.91 & 10.8.91.<