The Progressive Unionist Party's chief spokesman, Mr David Ervine, has called on the Orange Order to start dealing directly with nationalist residents' groups. Such a move was necessary to bring to an end the continuing conflict over disputed parades, he said.
Mr Ervine told a private seminar organised by the Orange Order in Belfast on Saturday that dialogue was the way forward, notwithstanding the Order's claim that many of these groups were republican fronts. "I believe fundamentally that even if it is on the basis of calling people's bluff that dialogue must take place," he told reporters before entering the Order's headquarters in Belfast on Saturday.
The seminar, "The Parades Issue - A Way Forward?", was organised by the Ballynafeigh Orange lodge, which is in regular dispute with the Lower Ormeau residents' group over parades passing that nationalist area. Speakers also included a former Parades Commission member, the Rev Roy Magee, Ms Monica McWilliams of the Women's Coalition, writer and commentator Mr Eoghan Harris, and former SDLP Belfast Lord Mayor, Mr Alban Maginness.