HOPES for a compromise on contentious parades faded further yesterday as the Orange Order ruled out meeting representatives of residents' groups. A strongly-worded statement was issued from the order's Belfast headquarters as the Northern Secretary, Dr Mo Mowlam, continued her round of intensive meetings with all sides.
Meanwhile, the chairman of the Parades Commission, Mr Alistair Graham, said he did not expect a formal agreement in Portadown this year. "The Chief Constable and the Secretary of State are going to have to take difficult decisions," he said, after meeting Garvaghy Road residents on Monday night.
In its statement, the Orange Order said it was "irrefutable that Sinn Fein/IRA is manipulating certain resident groups with a view to preventing or impeding Orangemen in the exercise of their civil rights". It added that the responsibility lay with residents' groups to show they were not being manipulated by an organisation "whose clear aim is to drive Protestants out of their land".
The Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition had moved on Monday to distance itself from violent republicanism by issuing an "unreserved condemnation" of the killings by the IRA of two RUC officers in Lurgan.
Dr Mowlam met members of the Armagh Grand Orange Lodge at Stormont Castle yesterday before going to Portadown for talks with the Garvaghy Road Residents' Coalition. She made no statement on the discussions but said the British government was determined "to leave no stone unturned" searching for a solution.
The Garvaghy Road residents' spokesman, Mr Breandan Mac Cionnaith, said after meeting Dr Mowlam that nothing had changed. He said Orangemen would have to take "the courageous step" of talking to residents and he accused the Orange Order of demonising local people by refusing to talk to them.
"People should be putting the onus on the Orange Order to talk. As long as they refuse to talk, there will be no agreement, he said. Mr Mac Cionnaith said he expected to meet Dr Mowlam again within the next week.
The Orange Order's statement asserted the right to march as "inalienable" and "non-negotiable", and said in the event of parades being stopped or re-routed "the right of peaceful protest still remains and should be exercised". However, the order warned members taking part in such protests not to subject the security forces or "anyone else" to verbal or physical abuse.
The statement added that Orangemen needed to "educate and inform people of goodwill in many communities" and that meetings would be necessary "with people who are committed to principles of democracy and peace". However, the Orange Order stressed it would not "ask permission" to parade.
After meeting Dr Mowlam, the Armagh County Grand Chaplain, the Rev William Bingham, said no new initiative had emerged. "The only thing that has moved is that we are closer to the parade and the service in July. Therefore the urgency is there very much at this stage," he said.
Mr Bingham said the Orangemen had told Dr Mowlam they were willing to accommodate the nationalist people.
He said the planned Garvaghy Road parade would not be triumphalist, but bands would play "music of hymns that are traditional to both traditions". Mr Bingham said both sides had been intolerant in the past and a new tolerance was needed.
Dr Mowlam will meet two more residents' groups opposed to Orange marches today, first on the Ormeau Road in Belfast and later this evening in the Co Derry village of Bellaghy. Tomorrow she is expected to meet members of Ballynafeigh Orange Lodge.