THE SDLP leader, Mr John Hume, has met representatives of the Apprentice Boys in Derry in an effort to avert a potential crisis arising from the organisation's planned march in the city next month.
Councillor Mark Durkan of the SDLP confirmed that he and Mr Hume had met the Apprentice Boys last Friday but added that both sides had agreed not to reveal the contents of the discussions. "There are a number of different people talking about a possible solution", he said. "Nobody wants Derry to become a rematch of Drumcree."
Meanwhile, Derry's Bogside residents' group has called for a meeting with the Northern Secretary, Sir Patrick Mayhew, to discuss the August 10th parade.
The group's spokesman, Mr Donncha Mac Niallais, said nationalists accepted that parades were important to unionist culture, but added that any resolution of the problem in Derry must include the consent of local residents.
He in turn rejected accusations that a rally planned by the Bogside residents later this week was deliberately provocative. The group intends to march to the city centre from the mainly Protestant Waterside district on Thursday night, a route last walked by nationalist protesters 28 years ago.
The rally is not intended to give offence, Mr Mac Niallais said, but was designed to highlight "how the search for equality and an end to second class citizenship is still very much a live issue."
During the Apprentice Boys' march on the City walls last August, several hundred protesters were forcibly removed from a section overlooking the Bogside.
Sinn Fein representatives and others have warned that the parade on this section will not be allowed this year and there have been calls for thousands to block the walls if there is an attempt to march.
