The three loyal institutions including the Orange Order have broken new ground by issuing an invitation to SDLP leader Mark Durkan to discuss the issue of parades, it was confirmed yesterday. This is the first time the SDLP has been asked to engage in talks with the Orange Order.
The invitation was issued by letter over a week ago from the respective grand masters of the order, the Independent Loyal Orange Institution and the Royal Black Institution, Robert Saulters, George Dawson MLA, and Billy Logan, Orange sources said yesterday.
The SDLP, confirming the request, said it was happy to meet the organisations. "Our position is very clear on parades. We believe that there needs to be face-to-face dialogue at a local level without preconditions. We also believe that everybody needs to work constructively with the Parades Commission," a spokeswoman said.
While this will be the first formal encounter between the marching orders and the nationalist SDLP, it does not presage any imminent settlement of disputes over contentious parades in areas such as Drumcree, Whiterock and Ardoyne this coming summer.
The order is holding to its position of refusing to engage directly with the Parades Commission, Sinn Féin or nationalist residents' groups it says are linked to provisional republicanism.
The order also hopes to ease tensions over Twelfth of July parades by "trying to create a festival atmosphere" around the events, Orange sources said.