Bogside group reroutes protest march

THE Bogside Residents' Group, following a flurry of representation from political and church leaders, decided yesterday afternoon to reroute last night's march away from the Protestant Fountain estate and the Diamond in the city centre.

The governor of the Apprentice Boys, Mr Alistair Simpson, responded positively by saying the decision would help ease tensions in advance of today's parade in Derry.

The BRG, four hours before last night's nationalist parade said the march would proceed to the more neutral Guildhall rather than the Diamond which is close to the Apprentice Boys' Memorial Hall.

The BRG also appealed to the Apprentice Boys to voluntarily reroute their contentious feeder parades this morning from towns such as Dunloy, Co Antrim, and Bellaghy, Co Derry.

If there was a positive response from the Apprentice Boys, the BRG said it would cancel its planned rally at Free Derry Corner this afternoon during the height of the Apprentice Boys parade.

Mr Simpson said that whether today's Apprentice Boys' parade would pass off peacefully or not also depended on how last night's nationalist parade was conducted. He said he was not in a position to order the rerouting of feeder parades. It was up to the local Apprentice Boys' clubs to decide whether they should take such decisions, he added.

However, the local Democratic Unionist Party councillor, Mr Gregory Campbell, described the rerouting as an "irrelevancy". It's entirely predictable and would do nothing to ease tensions, he added. The DUP press officer, Mr Sammy Wilson, described the decision as a cynical propaganda exercise designed to boost Sinn Fein.

Earlier, Mr David Ervine, spokesman for the loyalist Progressive Unionist Party, said republicans were planning street violence this weekend. Sinn Fein was being hypocritical in trying to establish that it was working for a moderate outcome to this difficult weekend, he added.

Sinn Fein is appealing for calm with one hand, while trying to wind things up with the other. It's like Charlie Chaplin and Buster Keaton, with one breaking windows and the other going around trying to put them back in again," said Mr Ervine.

The BRG made its decision following separate meetings yesterday morning with the Catholic and Protestant Bishops of Derry, Dr Seamus Hegarty and Dr James Mehaffey. The SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, had also urged the BRG group to cancel last night's parade.

The Sinn Fein leader, Mr Gerry Adams, and Mr Martin McGuinness, the party's senior representative in Derry, had also earlier suggested that the BRG take such an initiative. Mr McGuinness refused to state whether he directly asked the BRG to reroute the march.

It was interesting, however, that in its statement the BRG said it took its decision following a meeting with Mr McGuinness. The statement did not refer to the interventions by the two bishops and Mr Hume.

Mr Donncha Mac Niallais, spokesman for the BRG, rejected allegations that this proved the BRG was a "Sinn Fein front". Mr McGuinness was mentioned in the statement because he was an important politician in the area.

Mr McGuinness, said he fully endorsed the BRG's decision to re route its parade. He also rejected allegations that the BRG was a "Sinn Fein front".

People who criticised the BRG and Sinn Fein should think again, he added. "I was concerned to lessen tension in the city, to maintain the peace, calm and dignity of the place, and to ensure that those people who would attempt to undermine the Bogside Residents' Group had that particular stick taken away from them," he said.

Given that the party had the majority of representation on Derry City Council from the Bogside area, it was only to be expected that elements of Sinn Fein opinion should be reflected on the BRG, he suggested.

He believed it was "childish" to raise such issues. Based on such an attitude the Apprentice Boys, the Orange Order and the Royal Black Institution could be described as a front for the Ulster Unionist Party leader, Mr David Trimble, and the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley.

In an apparent reference to Mr Hume's call for the BRG to cancel its march, Mr McGuinness said the march was necessary in order to defuse and channel nationalist anger and tensions.

"Given the type of crisis we are in at the moment it is important that people be in a position where they can be given leadership, and advice over how they should conduct themselves over the next couple of days," he added.

He believed it was reasonable for the BRG to suggest that the Apprentice Boys reroute their contentious feeder parades in order to convince the BRG to cancel today's rally at Free Derry Corner.

Mr Hume welcomed the rerouting while again adding that he would have preferred if the parade had been cancelled. "The less people there are on the streets of our city the better will be the atmosphere," he said.