ON the eve of the Eleventh Night and the Twelfth tomorrow the Northern Secretary warned that the situation was even more critical.
The situation is dangerous, tragic and alarming but compromise through dialogue must be found. "Everybody can see there is a very, very tight timescale," Sir Patrick Mayhew said yesterday.
Meanwhile the SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, said the "simple and straightforward way" to resolve the Drumcree impasse was for Portadown Orange men and representatives of Garvaghy Road residents to talk to each other.
Sir Patrick took up this point. Asked about the Orangemen's reluctance to negotiate with the Garvaghy Residents Association because one of its spokespeople, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, is a former republican prisoner, he said dialogue between the two sides was important.
I think that it is important that there should be representative bodies, representing all shades of opinion. If those bodies exist then it is important that there should be dialogue between them...
"What is really important is that people who speak for other people in their community should be accessible to the other side. And there should be an open channel of communication if there is a blockage, to let both sides see whether it can't be got around," he added.
Sir Patrick welcomed yesterday's meeting between the Ulster Unionist leader, Mr David Trimble, and the four main church leaders.
"It is with that kind of dialogue both with people on the outside who are wholly independent and obviously of good will, and also dialogue at local level between representatives of both traditions that the way forward lies," he said.
He hoped there would be an accommodation and it was important that the finger of blame should not be pointed in any direction for the widespread violence.
The Northern Secretary, praising the work of the police, deplored loyalist intimidation of RUC officers and their families.
Both he and the British Prime Minister, Mr John Major, supported the Chief Constable, Sir Hugh Annesley, in his decision to re-route the parade, and would not interfere with his operational independence.
Sir Patrick said the attempts to resolve the Drumcree impasse had "probably been the subject of more attention, of more attempts to mediate, than any similar problem in our history".
Mr Hume said the situation at Drumcree had grown out of all proportion to the issue at its centre. Both Garvaghy Road representatives and Portadown Orangemen should meet to break the deadlock.
"The refusal to do that and the actions of major political leaders in involving themselves and making it a major political issue mean that they must accept responsibility for the serious consequences which have been very damaging to the people of Northern Ireland at this crucial time," he added.
"We cannot afford to have political leaders retreating from dialogue or resorting to dangerous rhetoric. We must all exercise restraint and responsibility in both word and deed," said Mr Hume.
The Sinn Fein president, Mr Gerry Adams, said the four main church leaders, who met Mr Trimble in Armagh yesterday, must uphold the rights of the people of Garvaghy Road.
"The organisers of this week's mass intimidation have hijacked religion, particularly the Protestant religion," he said.
The burning of Catholic property, including homes, the placing of isolated Catholic areas under siege and the murder campaign against Catholics is part of an effort to dominate. The church leaders should stand against this and against the aggressors and in support of the victims of this terror campaign," Mr Adams added.
Mainstream unionists again blamed Sir Hugh Annesley's decision to re-route the Drumcree parade. "A few hundred policemen would have handled the Portadown situation on Sunday," said the DUP press officer, Mr Sammy Wilson.
The Irish Congress of Trade Unions warned that the continuing street violence would put the peace process under extreme pressure and severely damage the Northern economy.
Mr Alex Attwood, an SDLP councillor for West Belfast, said that whatever decision was taken about Drumcree, nationalists must provide a powerful, principled and peaceful response".
Mr Seamus Close, the Alliance deputy leader, condemned unionist leaders for their attitude to the civil unrest. "After another night of rioting ... throughout Northern Ireland we can still see and hear the Pontius Pilates of unionism wringing their hands and blaming everyone but themselves for the anarchy," he said.
Mr Ruairi O Bradaigh, president of Republican Sinn Fein, said nothing short of total dominance and ascendancy would satisfy the unionist leadership.
