The Portadown Orange Lodge has openly criticised the independent facilitator appointed to talks aimed at breaking the Drumcree impasse, claiming he is biased against its delegation.
In a statement issued after a church service at Drumcree yesterday, which was attended by several hundred Orangemen, the Portadown district said Mr Frank Blair of the British conciliation service, ACAS, had a "complete inability to facilitate and a lack of understanding of the Orange delegation".
Mr Blair is also accused of a "complete bias" against the Orange position at Drumcree. The lodge has been protesting there since its annual parade in the town was prevented from proceeding down the nationalist Garvaghy Road last July. The statement comes in the wake of two days of unsuccessful proximity talks in Belfast between the Orangemen and nationalist residents of the Garvaghy Road, with Mr Blair acting as an intermediary. No date has been set for the talk to reconvene, although it is believed both sides will return to the venue later this week.
As he left the talks on Saturday, the spokesman for the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, said his delegation had attempted to show flexibility. "We again demonstrated an ability and showed our willingness to engage constructively. We showed the capacity to do so, but unfortunately we are not seeing any sign of that coming from anywhere else," he said. The Orangemen have rejected a document from the British government, presented at the talks, which states the Portadown district would march down the controversial route for the last time this year. The establishment of an Orange Order cultural heritage centre close to Drumcree was part of the proposals and was to be officially "dedicated" as Orangemen returned from the millennium church service.
The proposals also contained the directive that from 2001, the Portadown Orange district would only be permitted to parade to and from Drumcree using the Dungannon road route, thereby avoiding the majority of nationalist areas in the town.
Informed sources say the Orangemen were incensed by the proposals and were seriously considered withdrawing from the talks at an early stage.
Later, the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition presented a document to the Orangemen calling on them to accept and abide by the Parades Commission decision on the 1998 parade.
The paper outlined in detail "incidents" the coalition said had occurred in Portadown since the Drumcree protest began. The residents also called on the Orange Order in Portadown to "treat them with equality".
It is known that a senior figure in the Orange delegation contacted Downing Street during the two days of talks to "make the Prime Minister, Tony Blair, aware of Portadown's position" regarding the Drumcree parade.
Orange sources said Mr Blair's office indicated that Portadown Orangemen would have to "give some more to enable the parade to go down the Garvaghy Road this year".
Yesterday's statement said that the Orangemen felt "marginalised" by events at the talks. It also highlighted the "concessions made by the Portadown district in the past 15 years" over their parade routes in the town.
However, the statement added, the delegation would take time to reflect on the way forward as they "remain committed to achieving a just and lasting solution" to the stand-off.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said the rejection of proposals by the Orangemen put the onus on Mr Blair to uphold the rights of the residents.
"There is no absolute right to march, but there is an obligation on both the British government and the Irish Government to uphold the rights of the people of Portadown to be free from sectarian harassment," said Mr Adams.