The legislation governing parades in Northern Ireland is “defective” and must be reviewed, the human rights barrister Michael Mansfield has told a court in Derry.
Appearing for three of five individuals charged under the Public Processions (Northern Ireland) Act 1998 with taking part in illegal parades in support of the people of Palestine, Mansfield said the law was a product of “contentious” Orange Order marches at that time. He said it did not recognise the contemporary context in which the public needed to protest and to “respond quickly to an ever-moving global situation”.
“It was addressing a totally different sociopolitical situation back in the day,” he said, adding that the act’s wording was “no longer appropriate”.
Goretti Horgan (70), of Westland Avenue; Davina Pulis (37), of Knoxhill Park; Jude Coffey (28), of Gartan Square, and Robert Paul Maxwell (61), of Rathlin Drive, all in Derry, are charged with taking part in an un-notified public procession on February 14th, 2024.
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They were among some 100 people who attended a vigil in protest against the Israeli military’s actions in Gaza at the city’s war memorial in the Diamond, and who subsequently walked down Shipquay Street, chanting slogans and carrying banners and Palestinian flags, to Guildhall Square for some brief speeches.
People Before Profit councillor Shaun Harkin (53), of Beechwood Avenue in Derry, faces the same charge in relation to a separate incident on February 17th, 2024, in which protesters gathered in the Foyleside Shopping Centre and then walked, again carrying Palestinian flags and shouting slogans, to continue the protest outside a nearby branch of Starbucks.
In Northern Ireland, organisers of public processions or parades must apply 28 days in advance – or as soon as reasonably practicable – for permission to march. Parades which take place without approval are “un-notified” and therefore illegal.
All five contest the charges.
Some of the defendants were among the approximately 30 people who took part in a protest outside Derry’s Bishop Street courthouse in advance of the daylong hearing in the Magistrates’ court on Tuesday.
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Submitting that his clients had no case to answer, Mansfield argued that the prosecution depended, according to the wording of the legislation, upon a proposer or organiser of the alleged procession, but these had been “impromptu” events and “if there isn’t a person proposing, it doesn’t bite”.
The legislation had an “inbuilt incongruity”, he said, and his clients did not have a case to answer “because they didn’t organise what happened” and it had taken place “without warning”, as was accepted by a police witness.
He also argued the law “does not define what a procession means” and people had simply walked along the street and, in the case of the February 17th event, they had “shambolically” made their way along the pavement.
Stephen McNicholl, representing Coffey and Maxwell, made similar arguments on behalf of his clients.
Barrister David McNeill, for the prosecution, said their position was “clear” that a public procession had taken place, that the accused had either organised or taken part in it, and notification was not given.
He said it was not about whether these defendants complied with giving notice, “it’s that it was not complied with” and it was the prosecution’s position that taking part was an offence.
It would render the Act “unenforceable and unworkable and absurd” and would “drive a coach and horses” through the legislation if “impromptu” could be a defence, he said, meaning any Orange Order parade which wished to follow an unauthorised or controversial route could claim it had been “decided on the day”.
District judge Conor Heaney said he would take time to reflect on the points made and to decide whether the defendants had a case to answer. He adjourned the case and said he would hand down a decision shortly, potentially in early May.
