The Orange Order has made an application for 60 members to walk along the Garvaghy Road in Portadown later this month, it has announced.

Last month, a decision by the Parades Commission to impose restrictions on the annual Orange Order parade at Drumcree in Portadown was quashed by the High Court in Belfast.

The commission has blocked the Orange Order from marching along the nationalist Garvaghy Road in July every year since 1998 due to widespread disorder.

The commission, which adjudicates on contentious parades in Northern Ireland, was heavily criticised by unionist politicians and the Orange Order after the High Court ruling.

At a press conference in the Co Armagh town on Thursday, the order said members of the Parades Commission had “no credibility” to adjudicate on their application and should resign.

Portadown district master Nigel Dawson said: “Portadown district has today lodged a notification to complete our return church parade, which we have been unlawfully and unjustly denied since 1998, and to bring our bannerette home to Carleton Street Orange Hall for the first time in just under 30 years.”

Dawson said the notification was accompanied by “a detailed legal submission” that set out “our clear and unequivocal position” that the commissioners who took part in the “unlawful, both procedurally and substantively” blocking of last July’s parade were “infected by public-law bias and predetermination and, accordingly, they cannot play any role in considering this notification”.

Dawson added: “That this commission remains in office, particularly the chair, is an affront to good public administration and undermines the authority of the Secretary of State, who has shown himself impotent in the face of [the] belligerent and arrogant commission.

“Let us be very clear: they have no credibility, they have no legitimacy and they have no lawful right to play any role in this determination.”

He said there was no threat of violence or disruption from “any section of our community” regardless of the outcome of the application.

Deputy district master Alistair Power said the proposed silent march would take place on Sunday, September 27th, and would include 60 people marching along the mainly nationalist Garvaghy Road wearing collarettes.

He said: “This limited parade is proportionate, inoffensive and wholly reasonable”. – PA