A leading member of the SDLP has warned that the conflict over parades in Northern Ireland will widen if the British government extends the power of the parades commission to cover what is being referred to as "other expressions of cultural identity", which could include the activities of the GAA and Irish music events.
Mr Mark Durkan, a former SDLP chairman, said such a move would "license a false symmetry between different expressions of cultural activity and parades" and encourage "tit-for-tat tactics" on the marching issue.
"Then it would be right throughout the year and it will be far beyond the parades issue," he said.
"If you start making a false equation between different expressions of cultural identity and parades you will end up simply widening the conflict in relation to parades."
Mr Durkan was speaking after addressing a debate on how to avoid another Drumcree as part of the Dan McAreavy Autumn School organised by the youth group of the SDLP in Derry on Saturday.
A Bill outlining the functions of the commission is currently being drafted. The British government has already dropped plans to rename the North Commission "the parades and cultural identity commission".
Mr Durkan said he understood that the legislative facility in relation to cultural identity would be "enabling legislation" and would leave it to the discretion of the Northern Secretary as to whether it came into operation or not.
"But once you put something like that in the law, somebody is going to make it their business to make that a rallying point for particular demands." Mr Durkan said it was unclear if the legislation would cover GAA activities and events such as fleadhanna.
Mr Joel Patton of the dissident Spirit of Drumcree Orange group said last night that he would not recognise the legitimacy of the parades commission unless it looked at both identities.
"There is a disparity here. The Irish identity is being exempted, which is unfair and partial. Unless they look at both, they are curtailing the expression of our identity and engineering a situation of confrontation," he said.
The Ulster Unionist MP, Mr William Thompson, who also spoke on the Drumcree issue at the SDLP Autumn School, said he believed the part played by Mr David Trimble in the Drumcree Orange parade in 1995 was a crucial factor in his election as party leader.
After Orangemen were allowed down the contentious Garvaghy Road in 1995, Mr Trimble walked through Portadown with his arms raised with the Rev Ian Paisley in what was seen as a "victory" gesture. Mr Thompson, MP for West Tyrone, who is opposed to his party's participation in talks, said: "I would acknowledge that David Trimble is leader of the Ulster Unionist Party because he was at Drumcree, and that Martin Smyth is not leader because he was not at Drumcree." Mr Thompson said he believed decisions on parades should be taken by the police.