Nationalist residents at the centre of the Drumcree parade dispute have abandoned secret talks with Orange Order leaders, it was claimed today.
The Orangemen had agreed to end their ban on face-to-face negotiations with Catholics living on the flashpoint Garvaghy Road in Portadown, Co Armagh.
It is understood that Archbishop Robin Eames, head of the Church of Ireland, helped broker a deal to bring the two sides together in a bid to ease tensions in the run-up to this year's march on July 6th.
But the talks could be on the brink of collapse after residents refused to meet Orange Order representatives, sources alleged.
"There was definite movement from the Orangemen," one claimed. "It seems incredible that having got to that stage, and this is what the residents have been calling for, that they should walk away from it".
However, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, spokesman for the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, insisted there had been no mediation process since South African broker Mr Brian Currin left in 2001.
"We are not involved in a process and we did not walk away from any process," he said. But he said that the residents were regularly contacted about initiatives which had no serious chance of success.
Violence has flared at the march ever since the first stand-off between loyalists and security forces in 1995. The Orange Order has been banned from walking back from Drumcree Church into Portadown ever since 1998, provoking riots and widespread disturbances.
Parades Commission chiefs have continued to re-route the march amid fears of heightened trouble and because of the Orangemen's refusal to enter into direct talks with Garvaghy Road residents.