The spokesman for the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition, Mr Brendan MacCionnaith has said that the resumption of the annual Orange parade through the area could be an outcome of talks between the two sides. His comments have been welcomed by the Deputy District Master of Portadown Orange Lodge, Mr David Burrows, who, while wondering how genuine Mr MacCionnaith was being, was prepared to accept the remarks at face value, he said.
Mr Burrows denied a report that Portadown District had decided to end all dealings with the South African mediator, Mr Brian Currin. No decision had been made on that, he said.
Mr MacCionnaith was also critical of "senior unionist and senior Protestant clergymen", in particular the Church of Ireland primate, Archbishop Eames, whom he accused of interfering with Mr Currin's work and of being partisan. Speaking to The Irish Times yesterday Mr McCionnaith said the way to bring a permanent closure to Drumcree was for the officers of Portadown District to sit down with representatives of the Garvaghy Road Resident's Coalition.
"If [for the residents] that means going into talks being prepared to discuss the possibility of a march, for the Orange Order it also means discussing the possibility of no march, that there are no preconditions, no predetermined outcomes," he said.
He asked why, although Mr Currin had been in place 15 months, last week's forum proposals, initiated by Archbishop Eames and made through the Grand Orange Lodge, had gone to the Parades Commission only last Thursday. He also wondered why they had not been put to the residents.
"The reality is that there are people out there, senior unionist politicians and one or two senior Protestant clergymen, who have been actively trying to undermine what Brian Currin is about, and I have to ask do those people really want an equitable resolution in which the rights of all are respected or are they seeking a resolution on the terms of one side?" he said.
Dr Eames, he said, "misled this community in 1996 [when Drumcree II was pushed through]. "Archbishop Eames has not approached this issue from an impartial position. Bear in mind a week before those proposals were tabled Archbishop Eames was visiting the Parades Commission, probably seeking an Orange march along Garvaghy Road.
"The person who should be chairing any direct engagement is Brian Currin. He is completely independent. He has a background in conflict resolution. He has approached this all along from a very professional viewpoint and he had taken neither one side or the other," he said.
A spokesman for Archbishop Eames said last night that Mr MacCionnaith seemed to have misunderstood Dr Eames's role in the issue. "He was not acting as a mediator, but was merely encouraging some progress towards resolving this dispute," he said.