EFFORTS were continuing last night to avert a sectarian confrontation in Derry tomorrow. Apprentice Boys hope to parade around the city walls and a Bogside residents' group plans to hold a counter demonstration.
In a postscript to the most contentious marching season for many years, local Apprentice Boys have given notice of the parade, which they see as the completion of their curtailed celebrations of the Relief of Derry last August.
The Bogside Residents' Group (BRG), which earlier this week suggested that confrontation could be avoided if negotiations took place, has said its attempts at talks have been rebuffed and, in consequence, a token protest would be mounted by 13 residents.
The RUC said yesterday that an operational decision had not yet been made on the parade and counter protest, which will take place about 9 a.m.
The Apprentice Boys' march is expected to involve 200 local members and one band, a much smaller contingent than the parade planned on August 10th when - acting on instructions from the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew - the security forces denied all access to the walls because of fears of a confrontation.
A BRG spokesman, Mr Donncha Mac Niallais, said the residents would protest on the stretch of walls overlooking the Bogside, because of what he alleged was the continuing refusal of the Apprentice Boys to negotiate with the local community.
"This parade on Saturday is not a traditional parade and can only be seen as triumphalism, coat trailing and confrontational," he said. "Whatever transpires on Saturday will be the responsibility of the Apprentice Boys."
While the BRG plan is for only 13 people to take part in the actual protest, residents have been asked to assemble at Free Derry Corner an hour before the Apprentice Boys parade is due to pass along the walls 200 yards away.
The BRG said representatives from other residents' groups throughout the North would be in attendance and invitations had been issued to political parties and human rights activists to act as observers.
The general secretary of the Apprentice Boys, Mr William Moore, said the BRG was deliberately trying to provoke a confrontation. "Our parade is not an exercise in coat trailing," he said. "It is not an exercise to create division, fear or confrontation. We made it clear last August that in order to prevent trouble, we would hold our parade at a later time, on a day of our choice."
The Sinn Fein ard chomhairle member, Mr Martin McGuinness, in a statement yesterday urged the Apprentice Boys to engage in face to face discussions with the BRG.
He asserted that the insistence on marching now could undermine the considerable efforts made to reach a mutually satisfactory solution to this highly sensitive issue in Derry.
"The decision to parade this weekend, which is not a traditional march, threatens to move us back to square one," he said.