A NEW loyalist group is urging the Orange Order not to enter negotiations with nationalist residents groups over controversial marches this year.
The Co Antrim Orange Support Movement, which held its first public meeting at the weekend is calling on loyalists to adopt an uncompromising position during the marching season, which begins next month. It is also pledging opposition to the "pan nationalist front".
The group, which was set up in support of those protesting outside the Catholic church in Harryville, Ballymena, is attempting to put pressure on those in the Orange Order who favour dialogue with nationalist residents over disputed parades.
Sources have said that it plans to recruit members from beyond Co Antrim and to set up branches across the North. Moderate unionist leaders fear the group will stir up sectarian tensions as the marching season and the Westminster election approach.
Around 500 people attended its inaugural rally on Saturday in Ballymena's Protestant Hall. Little is known about the Co Antrim Orange Support Movement which has no recognised official spokesmen. The media was barred from the two hour meeting. A man who refused to identify himself to journalists distributed an unsigned statement afterwards.
It said: "The Protestants in this part of the UK are being denied their basic human rights to earn a living for their families without fear or intimidation and also the right to parade to their place of worship.
"What is happening now is a mirror image of what happened in the Republic of Ireland from the 1920s." In an allusion to Protestant church leaders who have supported the besieged Mass goers at Harryville, the statement referred to "the desertion by some clergy from their duty to protect and guide their flocks".
The statement called on loyalists to support any organisation which was taking a stand on the "conspiracy" against Protestants. The group stressed its support for the Harryville picket, which is organised in protest at nationalists in the neighbouring village of Dunloy blocking Orange marches.
Appeals have been made for the order to hold talks with nationalist residents in Dunloy and other areas where controversial parades are due to take place this year.
However, the Co Antrim Orange Support Movement said: "We would urge all loyalists and Orangemen not to enter into negotiations with any residents groups or anyone else with a view to negotiating what is our birthright to worship where and how we want."
Men and women of all ages attended the meeting and there was a particularly strong turnout of young people. Several bands performed at the rally, at which there was tight security. Doormen demanded identification of anyone they did not know. The press were kept out.
No prominent unionist politician is believed to have attended.
Mr Joel Patton, the leader of the Spirit of Drumcree group, a militant faction within the Orange Order, was present but it is not known if he addressed the rally.
Around 100 loyalists took part in the picket on Saturday night outside Our Lady's Church in Harryville, which has been staged for the past 23 weeks. They jeered at worshippers and sang loyalist songs during Mass.
It is believed that the future strategy of loyalists at Harrvyille and elsewhere was discussed at Saturday's meeting and that the organisers of the church picket have no intention of ending it until an Orange march is allowed in Dunloy. The Co Antrim Orange Support Movement is understood to be planning further rallies. Leaflets were handed out to those leaving Saturday's meeting but were kept from the press.