The North's Secretary of State Peter Hain tonight faced a new legal battle after a court upheld his appointment of two Orangemen to the body which rules on disputed marches.
Northern Secretary Peter Hain
Defiant Catholic residents plan to take their case to the House of Lords after three Appeal Court judges delivered a split verdict in the British government's favour.
Even though the ruling overturned an earlier decision that the pair's selection for the North's Parades Commission was unlawful, the campaigners claimed they retained equal support among the judiciary.
Brendan Mac Cionnaith, a spokesman for the Garvaghy Road Residents Coalition in Portadown, Co Armagh, said: "We have had four judges dealing with this and it's basically a 50-50 split, so we still have a fighting chance.
"The Lords is obviously the next stage and over the next day or two we will sit down and work out the options."
Mr Hain lodged his appeal after a judicial review found the appointments process for the Commission was unbalanced.
Opposition focused on two of the seven members — David Burrows and Don MacKay, both Orangemen in Portadown where the bitter Drumcree marching dispute remains unresolved.
Mr MacKay has since quit the Commission after it emerged that he listed Democratic Unionist MP David Simpson and SDLP MLA Dolores Kelly as referees without seeking their permission.
But Mr Burrows' involvement was also in jeopardy following last month's High Court ruling.
Garvaghy Road man Joe Duffy, another of the residents, took the case because Mr Hain wrote to the main political parties, the four main churches and the loyal marching orders during the appointments process, but had not sought applications from any residents group.
In their majority decision, however, the Appeal Court judges today said the Secretary of State was not required to achieve a balance between individual members of the body.
The Lord Chief Justice, Sir Brian Kerr, said: "The officials responsible for advertising the post of commissioner and soliciting applications for appointment were not under an obligation to consider whether to target residents groups as a counterbalance to the letter sent to the loyal orders.
"This was the single ground on which the judge had found that the decision of the Secretary of State was invalid."
"Regrettably, it appears that there is still a widespread misconception that the merits of such a decision fall under scrutiny where a judicial review challenge is made. It is important that this misconception be dispelled," he said.
Mr Hain later expressed his delight that Mr Burrows had been reinstated. "He has acted with great dignity through a difficult period," the Secretary of State said.
Mr Hain added that in appointing Roger Poole as chairman and six other commissioners last November, "I was seeking to bring fresh thinking and fresh approach to this difficult issue".