CARDINAL Cahal Daly last night met the Garvaghy Road residents association in Drumcree amid hopes that there could be a break-through in the deadlock on the outskirts of Portadown.
No details of the meeting were released but speculation that there could be an overnight settlement of the standoff was dismissed as "completely untrue". Sources insisted that the breakthrough would have to come from discussions between the residents and the Orange Order, but by early this morning there had been no direct contact between the two groups.
In the most serious security situation seen in the North for 25 years, up to a 1,000 British army soldiers were in place as back-up to the RUC to surround and protect the 450 families in the Catholic housing estate.
In the estate children sat on the bonnets of RUC landrovers with the officers, as local people stood less than 100 yards from the fields where thousands more Orangemen paraded from Portadown town centre to the field beside Drumcree church with their bands.
Earlier, the sharply menacing atmosphere in Drumcree eased dramatically when the DUP leader, the Rev Ian Paisley, called on the 10,000 Orangemen and their supporters to do "nothing else but just stand quietly with us". Speaking over the public address system, he said "Your presence here tonight is our safeguard."
He described the Chief Constable Sir Hugh Annesley as a "miserable sinner" and told the crowd that "I see a light at the end of the tunnel". After Dr Paisley spoke the crowd began to thin. Within an hour there were fewer than 5,000 in the field.
There was little violence last night compared to the three previous nights of confrontation, however, the RUC fired baton rounds several times as attempts were made to breach the barriers.
Politicians, Orangemen, the nationalist residents of Garvaghy Road and the rest of Northern Ireland now have only hours before the Drumcree stand-off reaches what may be its climax the Eleventh Night bonfire celebrations and the Twelfth itself.
Earlier yesterday, the Ulster Unionist Party leader and Portadown Orangeman, Mr David Trimble, met the four main church leaders, and the Garvaghy Residents' Association had discussions with the Northern Ireland Office.
In this volatile situation, the mood in the North is one of fear and helplessness. The SDLP deputy leader, Mr Seamus Mallon, said yesterday: "This is the most tense period that I have seen in the North in the past 25 years. The potential for danger is enormous."
As the Eleventh Night neared, politicians and churchmen made "eleventh-hour" appeals for a retreat from total anarchy. Pleading for compromise through dialogue, Sir Patrick Mayhew said: "Everybody can see there is a very, very tight timescale."
The four main church leaders met Mr Trimble yesterday in a search for a last-minute solution to the crisis. Afterwards the Catholic Primate, Cardinal Cahal Daly, warned: "The potential of this is really catastrophic. We couldn't think, exaggerate the seriousness of the situation. May God grant that we pull back from the brink."
Proposals were suggested - including a requirement that the Orange Order give a written guarantee that there would be no triumphalism should Portadown Orangemen be allowed down Garvaghy Road - but little indication that such a compromise would be acceptable.
Mr Trimble said the alternative to a solution was "too frightful to contemplate". He agreed with the leading churchmen about the "seriousness and urgency" of the situation He expected there would be further such meetings but he could not say if a resolution was any nearer