AN ACCOMMODATION has been reached on separate contentious parades in Belfast and Co Tyrone, although divisions have deepened within the Orange Order over the latter.
The Apprentice Boys yesterday announced that they will march as far as the Ormeau Bridge in Belfast on Easter Monday and then travel by coach to join the main parade in Killyleagh, Co Down. This decision means the marchers will avoid the contentious lower Ormeau Road.
In a separate development, the Orange Order in Dromore, Co Tyrone, voted on Tuesday night to stand by its Master, Mr Charles Kenwell, who took part in a public meeting to discuss parades through the village on the Twelfth of July. The local lodge rejected, by a narrow margin of 22 votes to 21, an attempt to censure those of its members who were involved in reaching an accommodation on the route of the morning parade.
On the Ormeau Road in Belfast both unionist and nationalist councillors have been involved in discussions to resolve the situation, where last year there was a stand off and sporadic violence on Easter Monday.
An Apprentice Boys statement said: "Assuming the RUC will not allow us to parade our traditional route on Easter Monday, especially with the escalation in violence at the present time, it would be wrong for us to provide another excuse for confrontation.
"We accept responsibility for our protest last Easter Monday which was hijacked by hooligans causing violence and destruction to business and property within our community and further alienating us from the local populace."
Mr Thomas Chivers, a spokesman for the Apprentice Boys Belfast Walker Club, said: "The case of the Belfast Walker Club is that there was no compromise coming forward from the Lower Ormeau Concerned Community and once again the Apprentice Boys are showing great dignity and control saying they are not going to create the situation whereby other people will manipulate or cause violence.
A Belfast SDLP city councillor, Dr Alistair McDonnell, who was involved in the discussions, described the decision by the Apprentice Boys as "courageous".
In Dromore, a mainly nationalist village, there is a split within the local Orange lodge over a decision by some of its members to take part in a public meeting to discuss a parade on the Twelfth.
However, a 4 1/2 hour meeting on Tuesday night resulted in a narrow victory for Mr Kenwell.
His deputy, Mr Gerald Marshall, had tabled a vote of no confidence in Mr Kenwell and others who attended the March 6th meeting at which he outlined the lodge's proposed parade route. The meeting was attended by Protestant and Catholic clergymen, community leaders and politicians including the SDLP and Sinn Fein members.